Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: Padrissimus on October 28, 2019, 09:42:20 AM
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(Edited to to this properly instead of my previous half-bothered effort!)
1. Maestro Angelo da Leoni's Steam Carriage
Here it can be seen parading through the holy city of Remas, before the crowds and his Holiness the Arch-Lector of Morr:
(https://i.imgur.com/z2wH6SN.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/OJQpFat.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/wtGIYo2.jpg)
Here are the scenes of the maestro's workshop yard during the engine's construction:
The maestro himself
(https://i.imgur.com/YQqfQQ7.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/eF9uqJV.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/mVvzxGC.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/v05yNj0.jpg)
And now the RW scratch-build modelling story ...
Already having made a carroccio (war altar), I was hankerin' after a steam tank. I had never had one before. What I was aiming for was a 'steam-tank-light', with stats reflecting less armour and (possibly) a weaker armament than the official model. In the end I decided I could mount the old helblaster model I had just bought second hand, as well as several smaller artillery pieces.
Here are some pictures of the early WIP stages of this (ambitious?) scratch-build project.
(https://i.imgur.com/pkq2udc.jpg)
The innards were built out of bits of pens, a toy barrel, plastic rods, and engine wheels from some cheap plastic toys that came wrapped in chocolate! The wheels are metal, bought at a wargames’ convention way back assuming I'd find some future use. The rods sticking out of the bottom were supposed to have a chain wrapped around to connect the steering wheel with the little truck of wheels at the front, but once I realised none of it would be seen I wondered whether to bother (it would be a fiddly process).
Here it is sticky-tacked together to see if it would fit together properly ...
(https://i.imgur.com/QVklNht.jpg)
Below is a guide to what is what, or at least what the various parts are supposed to do. I'm a low fantasy sort of guy, so I want this to look like it might (actually) work. A chain-loop would run from the steering column right back to the clump of four wheels. I knew it wasn’t as sleek as a whip-staff, but I'm not that clever. I built the mechanism without thinking about how I would add fighting platforms or weapons or armour. I decided to worry about that later, as if the machine had to be this way and so the designer/engineer would simply have to work out how to add the rest to it.
(https://i.imgur.com/pvNYaK3.jpg)
Some bits still needed clipping off, otherwise the movement of its mechanism would be hindered, but I'd learned from bitter experience when scratch-building (and sewing!) to make bits longer than I think they need to be, because too long can be corrected a lot easier than too short!
After completing the project I realised I had made a weird mistake. The final piece moved in entirely the opposite direction to that which I had intended. I had accidentally flipped its proposed direction of travel around in my addled mind.
The engine’s design is based on my Skaven warp-lightning cannon, which was actually built using an Airfix model kit of Trevithick's early 19th century engine. Here, I didn’t try to represent all the parts and pipes etc, however, as although I'm a low fantasy aficionado who wants things to look like they might work, I reckoned it already did look like it might work. So, I left the mechanism as is. Besides, I didn't know which pipes are meant to do what. And importantly, as I found out later, the engine wasn’t going to be particularly visible when the model was completed.
It was not easy to get hard polystyrene to stick to the annoyingly un-glueable waxy version that a lot of these scavenged toy bits are made of. Or any glue, for that matter! I have sewed things on to this sort of plastic in the past, but this model was too small and fiddly for sewing! So I scored criss-crossed lines with a scalpel to give a better surface on the waxy plastic for glue to hold onto. Also, when glueing wood to hard polystyrene, I put plastic glue on the plastic, PVA on the wood, then joined - thus mixing glues! It seemed to work. At least it hasn't fallen apart yet.
Here the pictures show the next stage. I was suffering many doubts about it at this stage, unsure I liked it at all. I quite like the engine and truck parts, even with the oddly angled wooden 'armour':
(https://i.imgur.com/qUCSAT3.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/a66mmkT.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/fWMY3Y0.jpg)
I hadn’t realised that the wooden side walls would lean outwards until I put my lollipop stick shields together, nor that the whole thing would be angled down towards the front, but it seemed ok (if a somewhat 'organic' design). The strange angles can't be seen much in the pictures. (I also wish I had modeled it to travel the other way, so that big piston type thing cam thrusting out the back and the crew could peer out through little windows to see where they were going.)
What I was really uncertain about was the WIP gun platform. It just didn't seem right - it looked ugly to me. And its supporting frame didn't look strong enough, not if there was to be a helblaster blasting away up there!
(https://i.imgur.com/DETSJWO.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/E1NH3AD.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/foJ93ii.jpg)
I was reluctant to start the platform again, making it all wooden instead of iron panels? In the end I decided it needed something in-between the lower section and the top sections – possibly more paneling or some sort of iron bars? Yes, bracing was most likely the way to go.
I had also forgotten about the smoke stack. There is one on my skaven steam engine, so now was the time to get looking in my bits-boxes. (Would all the smoke and steam make it more frightening, lending 'soft cover' of a sort to the crew!)
I also wondered whether I should have some sort of canopy above the gun platform. I didn't want the guys getting sunstroke whilst being steamed and smoked and tending a hot gun. It would prettify it up a bit too. Or maybe just become a major fire hazard? I didn't think the gun deck on any fighting ship circa 1560 - 1860 was particularly comfortable, and WW1 tanks were ridiculous uncomfortable. My low fantasy mind could live with the idea of great discomfort, but a canopy might finish it off as a model. The figures I intended to use as engine crew were stripped down to their shirts so they look like they were adapting to conditions!
I added way more supports and braces, and snow I liked it again! I had yet to put a bigger stack on it, but here are some WIP pics of the more solid looking version.
(https://i.imgur.com/bbKHW1I.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/GRau0B9.jpg)
I wanted to leave some gaps so that the innards could be seen. It would be madness, surely, to model and paint the workings so carefully to reflect a real engine, and then enclose them completely in armour!
The machine part (the inside) was already painted. I was thinking of leaving the wood as wood, especially now I have glued the case and so could not get to the innards. I used forums to discuss (and receive) ideas, and one great suggestion was some sort of prow. I did not want to go overboard as it is meant to be a slightly over-engineered low fantasy gun platform more than a regiment crushing beast. I thought I’d do something like those sweeping things on the front of old trains in the cowboy films.
It was also pointed out on forums that the front firing door could be much better, someone suggesting a double door version. Maybe (if I could work it out) this would have some sort of windlass or lever powered opening mechanism?
Here you can see the wooden prow, a mantlet, and a large smoke stack piercing up from the engine through the upper platform. Also, the front now had double doors of a symmetrical design.
(https://i.imgur.com/LLUVTCP.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/YjNN5Cu.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/h7VVFZd.jpg)
I spent several days working out what to do about the doors. Maybe two cords attached to the outer edges that run back so that the door can be pulled open? But I was not sure that would work - pulling the cords would just tighten them rather than open the doors. Maybe a pole to push them open? And a hook to pull them closed? I decided to search the internet for 'scratch-built low fantasy steam-tank gun-port doors' to see what I could find. There was bound to be something. No?
Here it is very close to completion. Iron banding was added for strength, and a simple mechanism for opening the double firing doors was added (luckily, my obscure skill set included the art of 'lucetting' to make the tiny ropes).
(https://i.imgur.com/Bj4UPMs.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/1Ly43SB.jpg)
The interior of the engine compartment was gonna be a squeeze, but ain't that often the case in the real world too?
(https://i.imgur.com/e0f9LNJ.jpg)
Here it is finally complete, apart from the heraldic designs and pennants I intended for its inevitable parade through the streets of Remas to hearten the populace and lessen their fears concerning the evil enemy in the north.
I stained the last wooden bits, added an extra brace of swivels and glued the lower crew, and re-based the upper crewmen on timber.
(https://i.imgur.com/4Cy9GmT.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Y8NpeWm.jpg)
Tell me you wouldn't be worried if you were standing in a rank and file body with that bearing down upon you.
The upper crew figures ...
(https://i.imgur.com/n9nedv3.jpg)
And the lower crew stripped to their shirts. (Steamy!)
(https://i.imgur.com/Ed1NL0f.jpg)
Here you can see the official base size in white. Why do I nearly always make the same mistake and make scratchbuilds bigger than they should be?
(https://i.imgur.com/GUTCIVG.jpg)
Finally, the ladder, and the start of some WIP barrels for powder and shot.
(https://i.imgur.com/T0RAhde.jpg)
...
Next, another engine.
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That is a cracking build and a lovely collection of figures too.
:-* :-*
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Thanks Mason. I would put some images of stone houses etc I have made here (just for you, master mason) but they wouldn't belong in this thread! Instead ...
2. Skaven Doom Wheel
Part ‘kit-bash’ / part scratch build
I love the idea of a doom wheel, but I wanted (as so often I do) to build my own version. And so I began the enjoyable odyssey that making such a mechanical model involves.
I wanted a machine with steam powered locomotion, not scuttling rats like the official model, using (of course) warpstone to heat the steam. I loved the idea that the locomotion itself then generates the power that sparks other warpstone shards to generate lightning. I also wanted a kind of ‘steam-punk’ look.
I needed some bits for the big wheel, so I started with three plastic Pringles' tops. Having hoarded a ridiculous amount of ‘rubbish’ (mostly plastic) in many a bits-box, I found a circular thing which fitted neatly inside the lids, which had kind of gear wheel teeth all around it - once part of a VHS video tape. As the Pringle lids are waxy and averse to glue of any almost kind, I decided to sew the new component in. Oh, and this was a clever bit - I used masking tape (the paper kind) around the edge of the lids, so that there would be a paper surface to glue wood bits onto and not a waxy plastic ‘unstickable’ surface.
(https://i.imgur.com/l24JO6M.jpg)
Now I hunted in bits boxes for anything like wheels, gears and any sort of appropriate looking component parts. I cut four sections out of one of the lids, taped up the four rungs thus created, and glued lollipop sticks on. I also began making a boiler type affair out of old lids from water bottles (milliputting the holes) and a funnel out of a GW cannon barrel. I used some wheels to make the main driving wheels that would carry a chain to make the doom wheel trundle round.
(https://i.imgur.com/VLfeNq4.jpg)
I fashioned a rear-platform for the operator to stand on, with the boiler and some control levers. For 45p I bought a thin strip of wood to cut to make the wheel rim, and I got extravagant and bought brass pins from the same modellers shop - that way they could be glued and pinned to the rim (the latter more for appearance’s sake). I made some kind of inner workings by cutting bits of plastic tube and stick, this being the machinery that turns motion into a generating spark for the warpstone to crackle its lightning.
Wood stain is great for lolly sticks and bits of wood, so I didn’t have to paint these sections. It also works well on the brass pin heads.
(https://i.imgur.com/KZQNKOM.jpg)
One warpstone shard was mounted on a rod extending out from between the two wheel sections, with a tube going to it to carry whatever it is skaven send down such tubes to light their warpstone (i.e. haven’t worked out the fluff for this part yet - just like the look of it).
Then I began the mounting for the blades that will stick out in front of the wheel, a frame which will attach to the axle and have two more pieces of warpstone at the sides. (Old skaven sprues provided this - a kind of claw and stone thing that was really to go on the top of standards).
I undercoated the workings and added inner (wood-stained) spokes. Wood-stained cardboard had to do for the outer rim of the non-gear-riddled wheel, as I could not be bothered carving wood to the same effect. Nor have I the skill. (I’d already cut myself once with a scalpel on this project - there’s a limit to how far I am prepared to suffer for my toy soldiers’ hobby!)
(https://i.imgur.com/KZQNKOM.jpg)
Here it is completed (well, almost – I intended to ‘tune it up’ later).
Here is a side view showing the flank with the drive chain. There is a wheel on the engine housing behind the boiler, and from this a chain runs to the gear wheel on the axis of the big doom-wheel wheel. (I’m writing a bit like a skaven too, and it is not even deliberate.)
(https://i.imgur.com/YdnQM3s.jpg)
My Warpstone shards were not to everyone’s liking, nor my general approach to painting, but I’d been doing ‘cartoon’-style for so long I didn’t want to stop now. Besides it would fit in with my army better if it was painted like them.
From the front you can see it’s an unforgiving war machine. This should account for the impact hits. As for the S2 attacks, as this is not from giant rat driven but steam powered, bit instead when the lightning is not flaring out there is still a relatively weak warp-static dancing and flickering around between the three shards (thus in the forward arc) – shocks strong enough to deliver these weak-ish attacks.
(https://i.imgur.com/aR1YjvY.jpg)
Here is the other flank. Like I said before, steam (heated by warpstone dust) generates motive power via a boiler and an engine, but then internal gears inside the large wheel generate enough energy to spark the three shards of warpstone to life. The driver stands (as expected) on the steerage deck.
(https://i.imgur.com/DiX21eV.jpg)
This rear(ish) view shows the two controls. A wheel allows the engineer to alter the steam power, and thus the speed. Well, it’s supposed to, but it’s all a bit random in truth (as per the rules). He can at least frantically try to reduce it by spinning it when it is going a bit too fast, and then when it is going too slow, he can spin wildly in the other direction. The lever at the side jolts the rear wheel and thus changes the engine’s direction.
(When I took the above photos I noticed I had forgotten to paint some bits, like the wheels on the end of the arms. But here they are painted.)
(https://i.imgur.com/crfHyDw.jpg)
Finally, here are a couple of shots of it in battle from an old bat rep of skaven vs. ogres …
(https://i.imgur.com/YCcvxIT.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/OPX2fAV.jpg)
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Those are pretty sweet.
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Thanks. There are a lot more yet to come, as and when I can upload and shuffle pics to Imgur and re-edit them into corrected text. Stupid Photobucket!!!!!!
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Spectacular!
Obviously the scratch built models are wonderful. Your photo staging and narrative presentation is a delight too. Nice work!
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Those builds are awesome!!
-Michael
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Thanks kind fellows. I will try to put some more up ASAP.
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Very nice scratch builds :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-*
Keep up the good work
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Brilliant! 'Tis a Frazer Nash ;)
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Great stuff 8)
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Thank you for sharing. Love the steam wheel, attention to detail and staging.
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Really well done! Looking forward to seeing what else you come up with
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Thank you all. You are giving confidence, and motivation, so here is another ...
3. Scratchbuilt Ironblaster
I wanted an ironblaster that would 'go with' my scratchbuilt Scraplauncher, so once again I used a toy rhino.
For the gun I used a pen, parts of a broken torch and milliput. I was actually very unconvinced by my efforts, but I am stubborn, don’t like redoing, and so I just hoped it would be transformed by a paint job!
(https://i.imgur.com/sR4CKhI.jpg)
Here are all the main pieces (minus the crewman) - balsa, card, and broken bits of toys.
(https://i.imgur.com/XpXAz0S.jpg)
I was getting the idea how it would all to go together.
(https://i.imgur.com/hPDs2Cc.jpg)
I always like things to look like they might work and reckoned that a beast as big as this could actually carry the barrel on its back rather than just pull it along like the official model. Also I put big fur-filled sacks on its back to mount the gun on - the idea being this would 'cushion' the violent jolting when the gun fired!
(https://i.imgur.com/iP8wV8r.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/qHMWiyS.jpg)
I was still not sure about it, but at least it seemed fun if not necessarily 'cool', and it certainly complemented my similarly made scrap-launcher.
I then took some advice from some WFBers who said it ought to have a platform for the loading gnoblar to run about on and the rhino should look like it's been damaged by the muzzle blast of the cannon. Also dirtied up the cannon a bit.
(https://i.imgur.com/NFQ0gUu.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/10G5nCX.jpg)
I was proud (an odd way to put it, I know) of the dried blood which had dribbled out of the poor beast's ears as a consequence of the blasts.
Once I put a crew-ogre on it, it grew on me a bit, even though it is, as all my scratch-builds tend to be, bigger than the official model.
(https://i.imgur.com/ISGd2Da.jpg)
The crewman holds rope reigns which are fastened to a chain around the beast's neck.
(https://i.imgur.com/ZogQEbV.jpg)
The special loading platform has four powder barrels on it.
Once based (in my usual, very basic style) and with a gnoblar attached, it was done!
(https://i.imgur.com/j3fiTCq.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/6HqUsLW.jpg)
When I looked at the final result I saw the the gun was still just wrong. What kind of shot would you load such an irregular barrel with? And how would it achieve even the vaguest accuracy?
I might replace the barrel one day. Maybe if the tyrant Razger Boulderguts ever returns to Tilea?
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You should be working for the companies coming up with this stuff... your stuff looks much cooler and more innovative then a lot of stuff I see coming out of these big shops! Great work.
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Thanks Gibby64.
4. Warplightning Cannon kit-bash
Sometimes I just kit-bash together the stuff the big company produces, like here when I jammed an old metal warplightning cannon barrel into the more modern plastic frame. The end result looks familiar to warhammerers, but strange at the same time.
(https://i.imgur.com/oaTPEO5.jpg)
Gotta love chains, eh?
Here it is being hauled by slaves (assisted by a rat ogre) down a giant underpass ...
(https://i.imgur.com/LsjBPxC.jpg)
Another angle ...
(https://i.imgur.com/PoLCtRa.jpg)
I borrowed the crewman from the wheel above for this scene!
(https://i.imgur.com/SAlnEJA.jpg)
(edit) Actually, now I think about it, I did more than just jam them together. There's a whole sort of 'engine' and warpstone steam device I fiddled about with for ages hidden beneath the crew-platform. As so often though you can't really see it in the end product. Oops!
You can kind-of see it in these two pics ...
(https://i.imgur.com/qvW8zpD.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/x3jgn7Z.jpg)
Next time - something a lot more scratch-build than kit-bash, I think.
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I lied. I am gonna do a pure kit-bash this time, but as a change of pace it'll be a regiment of figures. I'll get back to the engines later.
5. Goblin Pirates
My goblin scallywags began as a unit of 25, carrying stolen pistols (in reality, stolen from other sprues). Here they are ranked up in their original fighting formation, although there are actually only 21 gobbos here, ‘cos (for the first time ever) I decided to use unit fillers to turn 21 gobbos into the footprint of 25.
(https://i.imgur.com/nqUAnaI.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/6UxXwCw.jpg)
Here is the command group. I didn’t go for loads of conversion, just trimming off some bits, like armour, and using Empire Pistolier sprue pistols, as well as Empire Free Company sprue cutlasses and boarding axes.
(https://i.imgur.com/HKa8Hsr.jpg)
You might notice that when I took the photo I'd forgotten to paint the flesh on the decapitated head on the standard. Perhaps it's been boiled in cumin and turned that colour? I’ve painted it now.
Here are the two unit-fillers, being 2x2 bases which involve a table with a pistol being repaired and a ‘budge barrel’ (i.e. powder barrel) and chest being guarded. They were loads of fun to do, like little dioramas, which is why I do them much more often now …
(https://i.imgur.com/s9Pka34.jpg)
And here’s most of the rest of the skullduggerers …
(https://i.imgur.com/bIlYD6a.jpg)
Later on, having watched them die too quickly on the field even for goblins, I decided to bulk them up to a strength of 40, so I painted a few extras. Here are the new scurvy scallywags:
(https://i.imgur.com/AK1KPts.jpg)
I also made another pair of 2x2 base unit fillers as I was beginning to enjoy creating these. The first is my favourite unit filler yet - a mean-looking feller with his little pack of ship’s rats (he features prominently in a campaign story) …
(https://i.imgur.com/pOWloKv.jpg)
The second is a pirate ‘standard’ - not the kind of standard with fluttering flags etc, but the kind of standard that means ‘commonplace’ – the burying a treasure chest. You can’t see it in the picture, but the hole goes deeper than the base’s surface. I cut a hole in the base then put plasticard at the bottom so that they have actually dug right through the base!
(https://i.imgur.com/Jj6IzEP.jpg)
Here is the full regiment altogether, 8 by 5 …
(https://i.imgur.com/hq6Cwol.jpg)
And here's a non-GW pirate (can't recall the make as a friend gave me the figure) who may or may not be their leader. Sorry the pic is fuzzy!
(https://i.imgur.com/pKYxxzp.jpg)
I did take some pre-painting photos ...
(https://i.imgur.com/w9eSvHa.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/J2rbnDS.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/BlAU93f.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/zRIAF3b.jpg)
Here’s a clumsily MSPainted version of the diggers
(https://i.imgur.com/cXhX8cX.jpg)
And some of them in a camp …
(https://i.imgur.com/3KK2cWe.jpg)
And here is a close up from a battle report in an actual game …
(https://i.imgur.com/NRqtdIs.jpg)
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6. Scratch-built Snotling Pump Wagon Version One
(AKA the ‘Pumpidoodie’)
Now back to engines, this time of a novel and almost entirely scratch-built kind.
First, I stuck together several bits of plastic strip, black milliput (stubborn finger dye!), balsa wood, lollipop sticks, Ogre weapons, orc spear tips etc ...
(https://i.imgur.com/0WI6xgp.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/DpxmMnd.jpg)
Once I undercoated and put the big wheels in place, it started to look like something I was beginning to think was possibly ‘cool’, in a wacky-racers meets WFB way!
(https://i.imgur.com/oxxddU2.jpg)
I loved the idea of a spiky roller. Not in a 'Saw III' sense, but in a crazy goblins of 'Labyrinth' sense.
Here is a pic to show the 'workings'. I do get the idea of pump handles/belts etc to drive the wheels and roller, but how they actually function is beyond me. Some sort of ratcheted gears or some like? I didn't let it bother me.
(https://i.imgur.com/NxzJfC3.jpg)
Here's the 'inventor' of the machine - or at least he claims to be, and his wee mates believe him. He's so clever he now wears wizardly robes, and he is so proud he feels it is quite permissible to stick a finger up at anyone.
(https://i.imgur.com/BgPJa3y.jpg)
Here the base is done, though it is very basic (like all my bases), ready for battle. The snotling crew have painted crude skulls hither and thither upon its frame to count up their 'kills'. The score is inaccurate - they can't really count that high so this is an underestimate. (This bit of background is wishful thinking on my behalf!)
(https://i.imgur.com/A0dPP8H.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/HKrYOdM.jpg)
Last of all, a pic of the pumpers a-pumping, from the bat rep of an actual game …
(https://i.imgur.com/3kvnkN2.jpg)
Another pumper will follow soon!
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7. Scratch-built Snotling Pump Wagon Version Two
Having completed my first pumper, I embarked upon a second of a completely different design. (I really cannot see snotlings using the same design twice.)
Here the bits were being glued together - notice Ogre man-trap bits (hands removed) for the counts-as 'spiky roller'. Not so much 'spiky roller' as 'snappy spiker'! As ever, shields provide the smaller wheels.
(https://i.imgur.com/Wr9oCib.jpg)
The bits coming together nicely ...
(https://i.imgur.com/X3mdxvs.jpg)
Here undercoated and glued after any inward facing bits have been painted ...
(https://i.imgur.com/JHBsinh.jpg)
This is the almost painted model, base yet to be done and snotling crew yet to be added.
(https://i.imgur.com/8httGUR.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/iazKWpi.jpg)
Unlike the previous version, this has a big wheel at the front, and a high up pumping handle rather than a handle in the 'body' of the engine. There are two belts, but this time both are involved in turning the wheel, as there is no roller component to power. The 'snappy spiker' part doesn't need a belt, just a very brave snotling or two to re-set!
Now for the completed pics. Like their mates on the first machine, these guys are trying to record their kills ...
(https://i.imgur.com/rzH7gVY.jpg)
Here you can see how helpful these little fellers are to each other, one of them assisting the other up the ladder. Aww bless! (Mind you, he has no legs!)
(https://i.imgur.com/P3GbrbA.jpg)
Here is the power source - two keen snotlings, however one is getting distracted in the moment and pointing out a squirrel he has just seen ...
(https://i.imgur.com/wbFdaqE.jpg)
This one shows how this very, very, very complicated machine works (I still don't know how pumping a handle somehow turns a wheel only one way!) ...
(https://i.imgur.com/YwZwmmy.jpg)
And here is the painful part - for the enemy anyway ...
(https://i.imgur.com/Ce6FloK.jpg)
Finally, here it is in battle, in Autumn IC.2401, two miles west of Pavezzano, in southern Tilea, when the army of the VMC smashed Khurnag’s ‘Little Waagh’ …
(https://i.imgur.com/JEowEeF.jpg)
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So many pointy bits! That's gotta hurt!
Great work! Just discovered your thread and love the retro feel.
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Thanks PhilB. I suppose I myself am retro, having done this sort of stuff since before 1st ed WFB in 1983, and so the 'feel' is me! (Oooerr!)
8. Some little fiddly Skaven 'ScratchKitBuildBashes'*
* This is a brand new term for models that are part scratch-build and part kit-bash. It just rolls off the tongue, don't it?
First a warpfire thrower. The crew are kits, their weapon made of bits of various stuff ...
(https://i.imgur.com/BVHoW41.jpg)
Next a ratling gun, same method - cheap(er) plastic figures from the sprue, bash up the weapon ...
(https://i.imgur.com/DxZPHdl.jpg)
The above pair I like. I then started getting cocky and though I could save money by turning old 1:32nd scale Airfix WW2 American paratroopers (who else?) into Rat Ogres. This resulted ...
(https://i.imgur.com/dPgCdNE.jpg)
I was not at all convinced, but I needed some handlers and once again I used standard plastic skaven, but tried two different methods for the whips...
(https://i.imgur.com/5RYHfxR.jpg)
Despite the cost-cutting side of things starting to really show, being stubborn I thought I try a text model of a globadier bashed out of a plastic sprue skaven, again to save money on the metal ones. This time however, I knew I had gone wrong!
(https://i.imgur.com/TIUmWo2.jpg)
I had accidentally created a womble!
Being half Yorkshireman and half Scot, I refused to give up on my efforts to cut costs, and so when a campaign player needed an extra 9 jezzails I decided to really speed things up and came up with these to turn your average slave soldiers into warpfire teams for the table top ...
(https://i.imgur.com/10Y3r7i.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/kWNgNgp.jpg)
When I can find the pictures, or the figures and a camera, I will put up the pics of my 'properly' kit-bashed jezzails, of which I am actually proud!
-
Lovin the bashin. Great work :-)
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Thanks, djbii.
9. Undead Ogres
(Counts-as 'Crypt Horrors' in WFB 8th Ed)
Here are the completed (though un-based) undead ogres I made for the Tilean campaign. The background to them is that a Tilean lord (Lord Adolfo of Viadaza, an NPC), who has some orcen blood in his veins, becomes a vampire and not only raises the dead – having made things easier by cunningly allowing the Morrite clergy to go off on a crusade-like holy war – but also zombifies his current army, mainly marines and ogres. Due to his own corrupted blood he himself became a ‘counts as’ Strigoi.
I wanted the ogres to have Crypt Horror stats. Perhaps Lord Adolfo allowed his brutish warehouse guards and pit-fighting thugs to drink a tiny portion of his blood and so created his own version of these monstrous undead? That way they would become something like Crypt horrors rather than merely oversized zombies and also could maybe, in the far future, reinforce my own ogre army (as if they were some weird Ogre cult or clan allied to the army). Also whenever the vampire player in my campaign asked to borrow some ogres to bulk up his Crypt Horrors regiment, as he has on several previous occasions, I could now lend him some blue-skinned ogres that kind-of fit in with his blue-skinned horrors (making for better bat rep photos).
Several of these have decorative bones piercing their skins, an idea lifted from the official crypt horror models, and I tried to make these look more like vampire/ghoul ogres than rotting, zombie ogres.
Here is the unit as a whole:
(https://i.imgur.com/4diCcR2.jpg)
Here is an ex-pit fighter. He has a chain attached to his skull – I reckon that might work with an ogre - and carries in his left hand a torn-up gravestone as a weapon. (The latter idea I got from reading the crypt horrors fluff in the most recent VC army book.)
(https://i.imgur.com/kYmQjUH.jpg)
The next must surely have a headache, which cannot exactly make him the most agreeable sort of fellow. His right weapon is a flail made of skulls from my bits box. (I had apparently already chopped one skull off for some other project!)
(https://i.imgur.com/wcCBvhd.jpg)
The next one has some ‘fun’ weapons – a beast’s jawbone and a big stick with a skeleton skewered on it.
(https://i.imgur.com/sdfPThs.jpg)
This next guy is my favourite. I tried something I have never done before and made his flail with real chains, attaching two skulls and a meatier severed head. The chains actually swing about as you move the figure. Cool.
(https://i.imgur.com/jgHwYwE.jpg)
This next fellow has an ogre weapon and another weapon which I think is from an orc figure but is a wonderfully vicious looking thing that seems just right for such a creature.
(https://i.imgur.com/MJxCUbR.jpg)
The last is also inspired by the fluff from the VC army book, where it said that crypt horrors might use graveyard railings as weapons. This is a very tall railing, perhaps from next to a gate, and has been prettified up with some lovely skulls. This will count as a standard bearer if I use these as an unusual Ogre army unit.
(https://i.imgur.com/jJfRSTT.jpg)
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10. Scratchbuilt Scraplauncher
I started with a plastic, toy rhino and lots of wooden sticks and chains. Some of the workings were made from plastic thingies from my bits box.
(https://i.imgur.com/a0K4OSG.jpg)
I gave it some thought (not a lot was necessary, really) as I wanted it to look like something that would work. Well, something that would work in a fantasy world. A huge weight provides the force to swing the arm, and a winch allows it to be re-set. The access ladder has a simpler and less sturdy winch to haul it up off the ground.
(https://i.imgur.com/I6deq0B.jpg)
Several platforms allow the crew to get around on it, and to access the winches and the 'plate' that holds the missiles.
(https://i.imgur.com/vlk4ewz.jpg)
Here it is almost completed, with just a few little touches to sort, like the shield on the little box, and the base. I took a few differently angled shots so that you can (hopefully) see how the mechanism would work a little better than the pics above. Believe it or not, no word of a lie, when I first put it together it actually worked. When I pulled on the weight the arm shot up, and I could actually wind the winch and reset the weight. BUT when I painted (well, wood-stained - I got lazy on this one!) all the parts it seized up. This made me a bit sad, but I soon got over it when I remembered I wasn't 7 years old anymore, so marble chucking did not mean as much to me.
(https://i.imgur.com/B7VjuBI.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/i7e55c3.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/RQ6KHjD.jpg)
In the above pics I had forgotten to tie the two little sacks of ammunition to the side. These are an important finishing touch, for I was hoping this engine would shoot more than once per battle!
(https://i.imgur.com/VPhqiaM.jpg)
I want to better describe its mechanism, for the edification of any of all gnoblar 'engineers' out there. First, a picture to give an idea on the scale of the engine - the Ogres next to it show its relative size. It only just fits on its base - well, leg wise at least.
(https://i.imgur.com/NwoNRHN.jpg)
Now for the workings...
A huge lead weight hangs from the rope at the rear, leading up to the winching wheel, then around that and off to the front of the launching arm. When a certain spike is removed the lead weight drops, pulling the rope, spinning the wheel (in a satisfactorily dangerous manner for a gnoblar construct, for there are many ways a careless mountain goblin could die on this thing) and pulling the arm. Spinning about its axle the arm swings up and thus launches the scrap into the air. The gnoblars then have to wind the winching wheel to lift the weight and thus drop the arm back to be reloaded.
(https://i.imgur.com/9O1mRMc.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/MjNqhvD.jpg)
The other winch (you might be able to see) simply pulls the ladder up. The ladder helps more gnoblars climb up to replace the ones who most likely perish nearly every time this thing fires. Of course, being very neat and tidy little creatures, the gnoblars didn't want the ladder to drag along the ground when not in use.
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11. Scratchbuilt Luminark
As ever, and always so mote it be, I decided to scratch-build rather than buy. This time, a Luminark of a low fantasy design.
I started to get some fiddly bits of plastic from my bits box together, including some lens-like transparent bits of saved junk ...
(https://i.imgur.com/tQO58tg.jpg)
This was to form the sequence of mirrors that would focus the deadly ray of burning light, both mundane and etheric!
Then I began to mount it on a platform, and started to give some thought as to how the crew would service and use the machine ...
(https://i.imgur.com/Xsee84j.jpg)
And then I added the carriage and wheels that would allow it to move across the field of battle ...
(https://i.imgur.com/Iks19Bc.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/aRYJ6Ri.jpg)
Painted up I started to like it.
(https://i.imgur.com/R1nThZM.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Dk9SGyC.jpg)
Especially how the light came through the four lenses.
(https://i.imgur.com/5hfr4Ia.jpg)
One crewman, the engine's master, would be an old figure with an arm replaced ...
(https://i.imgur.com/kN0EOfF.jpg)
Two armoured horses would pull it ...
(https://i.imgur.com/Fu2fdpo.jpg)
And with the second crewman fitted it was ready to go ...
(https://i.imgur.com/K0t89Zc.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/3kGMBWp.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/TD6xKl1.jpg)
Here it is being paraded through the streets by the fanatical Morrite sect the Disciplinati di Morr ...
(https://i.imgur.com/n1dqHnj.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/uZxqj5Z.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/CZ4eBeV.jpg)
And here is a battle report shot of the moment it first attempted to fire, and broke!
(https://i.imgur.com/kyDNu3w.jpg)
All that effort and the thing went kaput in its first campaign battle! Still, well worth it, I think!
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Great thread, very inventive inventions!
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Thanks Supercollider.
12. My ‘Carroccio’ (i.e. war wagon/altar) kit-bash
I wanted a carroccio that had everything the ‘Treachery and Greed’ internet campaign Mercenary Company army list suggested: a Battle Standard, a minimum of 6 crew, religious trappings and the sort of firepower that allowed an equivalent of at least 6 handgun shots per turn. I also wanted some height so that it had a good LoS.
Here it is completed (un-crewed):
(https://i.imgur.com/WKlX8JL.jpg)
In this early incarnation the standard is an extra-fancy version of the Compagnia del Sole’s white rod and sun emblem (the simpler emblem used by the rest of the army is painted on some of the panels). Also, the golden statue of Myrmidia from outside Condlumar’s palace stands at the front. Two torches illuminate the goddess. In the Morrite version used in my current Tilean campaign, the standard has changed, the panels are repainted, and instead of a golden goddess statue there is a chest carrying holy relics.
The next pic’ from the old campaign includes the crew, including a priestess in her religious capacity (tending the statue with prayers):
(https://i.imgur.com/bDKBrH3.jpg)
There are six handgunners, four on the top, two in the ‘cage’, as well as three swivel guns, plus several optional stanchions (the red posts) for mounting them.
(https://i.imgur.com/YtHvkTt.jpg)
Bizarrely, the flag swivels, so I could re-position it for photos. The next shot shows into the ‘cage’ which is an iron-grilled area beneath the tower platform:
(https://i.imgur.com/Redmpvy.jpg)
Luckily two guys were just short enough to stand in there, and I love the more three-dimensional image of them tucked away inside, sticking their guns through the grate:
(https://i.imgur.com/0Y4L6in.jpg)
I built it from a variety of old scenery left-overs (castle doors and windows), plus two horses I had spare, as well as plastic model shop tubes, and the wheels and yoke from the Black Coach model (which I have had unused for nearly 3 years now). The Morrite version has different horses, with metal armour barding on them – much more likely to survive battle.
(https://i.imgur.com/yIuoM84.jpg)
The crossbow arm was cut with a scalpel to make the mount for the swivel guns - using the stirrup at the end of the crossbow to pass through the holes in the side of the guns.
The main body was built from lollipop sticks, with thin bits of plasticard stuck on top so that I could glue the gratings on. There was a LOT of chopping of plastic as most bits were the wrong size. Luckily the curving grate tops on the lower level match the wooden ones on the top level - because they were alternative components for the same holes in the castle scenery walls.
(https://i.imgur.com/CqF09q9.jpg)
The only thing I bought were the swivels (model shop, model ship pieces), mainly ‘cos I couldn’t bring myself to break the ones I already had off their stands and leave my pirate army with three less!
Here you can see it 'on parade' through the streets in the old Treachery and Greed campaign, accompanied by Estalians ...
(https://i.imgur.com/sAhYa8A.jpg)
And here you can see its current form, fully Reman Morrite (with the arch-lector’s cross-keys banner) and now with its colourfully barded and protected horses.
(https://i.imgur.com/cNKmW4Y.jpg)
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Some genius work there!
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Thanks Rick W.
The next one is not genius, unless it is genius to be as cheap as possible!
(Unlucky) 13: The cheapest Giant Gorillas ever!
Buy some pound shop, incredibly cheap, gorillas. Base them, add weapons, scratch the plastic with a knife to give some basic impression of fur, re-shape an arm or two, and mess about a bit with armour and milliput ...
(https://i.imgur.com/wLLPnYU.jpg)
Scratch loads more to try to get some bloomin' fur effect to manifest, and add some wacky jungle bits ...
(https://i.imgur.com/miPZFGK.jpg)
Paint in a cartoon fashion and Wa La!
(https://i.imgur.com/NYQIt2n.jpg)
(Hopefully this particular post is fun, if not exactly something anyone would want to mimic. Unless ... you are as 'cheap' as me!!!)
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14. Scratch-built handguns for dwarfs.
Got the wrong Dwarfs? Are your models equipped with axes, swords or crossbows when you want handguns? Then get some bits of plastic, tubing and make your own handguns!
Parade.
(https://i.imgur.com/5NQ3hbO.jpg)
March on!
(https://i.imgur.com/5JbEqTc.jpg)
Close up.
(https://i.imgur.com/hRee5YZ.jpg)
The guns were made of 'Plastruct' polystyrene tube mounted on polystyrene square cross-section rod with some fiddly bits stuck on to give the impression of a mechanism. Sometimes!
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Ingenious is the right word! :-*
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Thank you for saying, Spooktalker.
15. Granite Breaker, Dwarf 'Cannon-Imperial'
I began work on a dwarf castle-shattering cannon ...
(https://i.imgur.com/XkYEiCn.jpg)
Then I decided I wanted the bronze to be oxidised like the Tsar Cannon:
(https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/tsar-cannon-kremlin-moscow-russia-large-metres-ft-long-display-grounds-was-cast-58446265.jpg)
So ancient that it is heavily oxidised. I tested a technique (I was still using enamels) on a second hand horse's arse ...
(https://i.imgur.com/1Eo5u4Z.jpg)
... and decided I liked it.
The pic below shows what happened. I now wondered why I had made all the effort to leave black lines on the bronze layer, only to have them all completely disappear under the 'wash' (a white spirit wash - not recommended for your health at all!).
(https://i.imgur.com/0Ntpr3k.jpg)
It definitely looked oxidised, but whether it is a better look than the bronze I could not decide. Anyway, I finished the rest of it ...
(https://i.imgur.com/FSA2TX2.jpg)
.. and was still very unconvinced. So I took advice from some forum folk. One bloke said I should "restore a little bronze colour where there might be wear" so I tried that and I liked it a lot more. Thanks forum bloke!
(https://i.imgur.com/sSKclqt.jpg)
I was worried that my little fellers couldn't possibly load it. So I worked on some steps and a crane - not works of art, but practical. Now with the courtesy of some steps, a long linstock and a handy crane, they can load the beast!
(https://i.imgur.com/l8f42gb.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/TbwbYEg.jpg)
Note: This post is 'allowed' in this thread, I reckon, because the crane and steps are scratch-built!!
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16. Kit-Bash Warp Lightning Cannon
This kit-bash project utilises an Airfix historical kit. I wanted a Skaven Warp-Lightning cannon able to move under its own power with a steam-punk sort of look, to go with my Doom-wheel. So, in a spirit of taking the direct approach, I got myself a kit of an early engine: Trevithick's 1804 steam loco.
(https://i.imgur.com/hG9872U.jpg)
First I built the kit, which was a blast from the past considering I spent (mispent?) nearly my entire youth making Airfix kits, some many times over, and then I spent my teenage years making more, but with a 'sci-fi' twist (T34's became grav tanks, WW2 trucks became Mad Max vehicles - that sort of thing).
(https://i.imgur.com/Zyrp68p.jpg)
As I had to paint the bits while they were still disassembled, this meant I could use them for a story piece in my campaign of the time, telling of when a skaven engineer found an abandoned war engine, in pieces, in a disused mine tunnel. Oh boy, he was so excited I can tell you.
(https://i.imgur.com/hd60w3X.jpg)
When I later put it together, I shortened the funnel - don't ask me why, I've long since forgotten - and painted the whole thing metallic. I liked it already, although there was nothing 'Skaven-ey' about it yet, not even a weapon.
(https://i.imgur.com/zvfk7iP.jpg)
Then I set about working on the warp-lightning cannon to mount on it, and the necessary crew platforms.
(https://i.imgur.com/BQ8tp1Z.jpg)
I decided on a platform on the back, plus another long one along the side for the crew to perform 'maintenance' and access various vital bits. There's no way of feeding coal in or such like, but I had already decided there was a super-hot chunk of warpstone inside heating the water to create the steam. No need for coal. Good for the environment! There was also a huge chunk powering the cannon (an ancient and sanded D8, no less).
(https://i.imgur.com/ha6HwCh.jpg)
I painted the warpstone chunk and added a chain-ladder at the back for the crew to scramble up. Then someone said my warpstone looked like a strawberry! And someone else pointed out that I had forgotten to rust up the gun.
(https://i.imgur.com/VQavBTr.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/TAI5dZk.jpg)
So I added yellow lines between speckles ...
(https://i.imgur.com/wp3WfbE.jpg)
... and rusted up the gun.
(https://i.imgur.com/gKt2Ptw.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/shQkiSz.jpg)
I was going to make special crewmen on wooden bases to match the platform, but I never got around to it.
I was proud of this new behemoth. Wondering if it would sit nicely alongside my existing warp lightning cannons, I sat it next to them ...
(https://i.imgur.com/s993qxo.jpg)
I was suddenly thinking about Goldilocks for some reason!
Here you can see it trundling about in the rear of my skaven army …
(https://i.imgur.com/53GcN7o.jpg)
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17. Kit-bashed Orc Crossbows
My campaign story from the Spring of IC 2401, called 'The Green Corsairs', featured some crossbow-armed orcs. These were relatively simple kit-bash style conversions, replacing the weapons the models had with crossbows.
Here they are before painting:
(https://i.imgur.com/QdPenMi.jpg)
I used crossbows from the Empire Handgunner/Xbow box & the Free Company sprue. Just had to cut the human hands off.
Here's the rear rank (in a marching pose):
(https://i.imgur.com/0ypGEqC.jpg)
And here's the front rank (the musician is armed with a choppa):
(https://i.imgur.com/lGdxpTI.jpg)
Now here painted, but not yet based.
(https://i.imgur.com/zfBWQXf.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/XgZONZn.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Cj1OcZG.jpg)
And here is the pic of them from the story …
(https://i.imgur.com/hjO8g2r.jpg)
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18. A Brace of Galloper Guns
(One official and one a scratch-build facsimile)
One of my pair of galloper guns is the official Bronzino model, the other is a fake of my own devising. This was due mainly to the fact that I couldn't get my hands on another at anything like a reasonable price, although it is also nice that they aren't clones!
First, I hacked the wheels off a couple of old cannons I made decades ago from bullet casings! Here’s one of the original rather silly looking guns …
(https://i.imgur.com/aAP8oeR.jpg)
Then I fashioned up a frame not dissimilar to the official model, using a 20mm ECW gun and a Perry Miniatures plastic horse ...
(https://i.imgur.com/vqBRQqw.jpg)
I added a collar of real wool to the horses' neck, painted with glue ...
(https://i.imgur.com/4WCSZsW.jpg)
Then I fashioned some crewmen to copy the official models in form ...
(https://i.imgur.com/Xv1s7n9.jpg)
Gathering up the pieces ...
(https://i.imgur.com/0B5QsWX.jpg)
... I began assembling, and painting the wood and metal.
(https://i.imgur.com/Rb2lPQr.jpg)
I went for a livery of red and green, as I wanted this company to be an independent mercenary unit, not a part of my 'famous' (dark blue and dark red) Compagnia del Sole!
Here's the official Citadel model ...
(https://i.imgur.com/kQFOoc6.jpg)
And here's my copy of it ...
(https://i.imgur.com/RGEZNv4.jpg)
Together they make a lovely brace of guns.
(https://i.imgur.com/2cIdCoS.jpg)
Here you can see them as they were pictured arriving at the army camp of the first Reman alliance army under the command of the Arch-Lector Calictus II
(https://i.imgur.com/gwFTydG.jpg)
And here you can see the commander himself, Captain Barbiano Pandolfo …
(https://i.imgur.com/zjSuY7I.jpg)
NB: If you are wondering why there are arabyans with them, they traveled with Gedik Mamidous' mercenary company from Araby, known as the 'Sons of the Desert'!
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19. Undead cultists
The newly made vampire Biagino’s main source of corpses, by his own preference, was the great pile of fallen Morrite dedicants (cultist flagellants) lying upon the battlefield of Ebino. Because all my existing zombies were dead Empire soldiers or dead pirates, I needed new zombie figures, looking like they had been cultists in life. Cue some kit bashing.
I used five different sources for the figures - Mantic (Kings of War) zombies (30) and ghouls (20) would be the core, with elements of Frostrave cultists, GW flagellants and GW ghouls mixed in.
Here are the almost pure Mantic (zombies and modified ghouls, plus a mix up of the two):
(https://i.imgur.com/qQPB6Il.jpg)
Here are the Mantic/Frostgrave:
(https://i.imgur.com/HTK2NON.jpg)
The Mantic/GW (ghouls/flagellants):
(https://i.imgur.com/21yjgdD.jpg)
Close ups of some of my favourites:
(https://i.imgur.com/lLYGKeQ.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/r1JK9j1.jpg)
During the process I think invented a new way of doing hair. Admittedly, I can only make crazy hair this way, but I never claimed to be a stylist, and besides, this is what my own hair actually looks like so it’s karma or zeitgiest or habitual or something else stream of consciousness.
The technique involved pin drilling plastic sprues to create curly/wavy strands ...
(https://i.imgur.com/u21a6Um.jpg)
I then cut them into bits (very fiddly), then blobbed some glue into a head (I chose an entirely bald head for my first transplant operation but you could go for extensions instead) then gently pressed one end of the strands, one strand at a time, into the blob. I then brushed (& squashed) strands into place for that 'just stepped out of the salon' look ...
(https://i.imgur.com/Hda0u1x.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/IXh3MWs.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/UJlTtgB.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/acUmrJl.jpg)
If it's been done before, I apologise for my vainglorious claims. But I know wargamers are always after tips for their hair.
The Painting
I decided to try a wash technique of sorts. It’s not easy with enamel paints, but I had done it before and it ‘kind-of’ worked. The wash should create skin then I’ll add my usual black undercoat to everything else and continue as normal. Then I thought “Why risk enamels?” and so …
Here they are completed:
(https://i.imgur.com/E85HNWi.jpg)
I tried a new technique with these. Having painted in enamels for decades, using a black undercoat and ‘cell shading’ cartoon style over the top, I thought I’d have a go with acrylics. However, I wanted the figures to ‘fit in’ with my existing armies, so I didn’t go the whole hog. Instead I sprayed a white acrylic undercoat, then painted, washed, drybrushed and inked away at the flesh, until satisfied. Then I slapped a black enamel on all the clothes and weapons and painted those in my usual style. I was hoping to save time (always a consideration when trying to paint a unit of 50). Upon completion, however, I was not entirely sure it was quicker than my usual method!
I like the more ‘subtle’ way the faces came out – much better in close-up than my normal style.
(https://i.imgur.com/rL3EBby.jpg)
I didn’t think of ink ‘til late on, having never used it before, and I now think I will use it again.
(https://i.imgur.com/vvHZlPL.jpg)
I like the scabby bloodiness of the wounds, which I also washed some green into:
(https://i.imgur.com/nCoryUW.jpg)
Some of them really do, to my eyes, look threatening …
(https://i.imgur.com/02O0SHT.jpg)
My favourite of all …
(https://i.imgur.com/x2GcLCi.jpg)
Another new thing – I used square (2x2) figure bases instead of the long (1x4) ones. It should make it even easier to rank the unit up.
(https://i.imgur.com/ULA7qQG.jpg)
As for the experiment with hair – I can’t decide if it worked well or not. I thought it would look more, well, hairy!
(https://i.imgur.com/ef5zGWu.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/XstJ5yI.jpg)
Just to make the difference between this new technique and my old way really jump out, take a look at the two styles side by side ...
(https://i.imgur.com/gftrurW.jpg)
How times change! Still, I kind of like both techniques, in their own way.
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Thank you for continuing to share your hard work and experience! It is very instructive as well as inspirational. Much appreciated!
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Amazing! The bleeding ears on the rhino are a nice/horrible detail :D
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20. Picklehaube Ogres
This is the most minimal kit bash yet, but sometimes a subtle change can transform a figure. I'm not saying it transformed these for the better, but I do think it changed their 'look' considerable!
I was inspired by my standard bearer conversion (which you can see in the pictures of the painted figures) to do a whole unit of spiky helmeted dudes. I wanted basic, no frills (apart from the spike) thugs with a ‘bovver boys’ kind of look.
Here was my test model:
(https://i.imgur.com/dXe9Bw7.jpg)
The helmet is from the mid 80's Citadel white, plastic orcs, the ones that came in a box with 10 dwarfs, 10 wood elves, 10 skaven, 10 dark elves and 10 gobbos. Here are three together. Sticking with my 'keep it simple' theme, I cut off most of the knobbly bits, gut plate decorations and spikes and such.
(https://i.imgur.com/K0Vza3A.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/D3N7xJk.jpg)
I know my painting style is different, being 'cartoon', because everyone tells me so - but every one of the more than a thousand figures I've painted has been done this way, so why stop just 'cos Ogres are big?
(https://i.imgur.com/j4pCK3a.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/PuZhSTW.jpg)
I added a bit of armour 'cos folk said they looked a bit bare. I wanted a real basic, no spikes look (apart from the obvious belly and helmet spikes). 'Bovver boys' would not care for anything too fancy. I looked that their helmets looked like Monmouth caps, or bowls jammed onto their skulls. I was not 100% sure about standard, but a blood red scimitar over the moon seemed a good theme. I do now wish, however, that I had somehow got the helmets to sit a little lower on their noddles!
Apparently, although I have no memory of it now, I added three more at some point in time since!
(https://i.imgur.com/XbobiH3.jpg)
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I knew I'd seen that helmet before somewhere! Thanks for posting where you found them as it was going to twist my brain. Really like the change to the look. Made me think of the Michael Caine movie The Last Valley :-)
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Hacking the helmets off the orcs' heads with a scalpel was fun (not).
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21. MORE Undead Cultists!
Turns out I need LOADS of new zombie cultists for my campaign. The vampire Duchess Maria has defeated a second whole army of cultists (the 'Disciplinati di Morr'), and has thus resurrected many more to serve her, these in addition to the the regiment already serving her lieutenant Biagino.
So I started working on these 20 wondering if I was going to have to get another 40 or so. Having vowed to avoid enamels after 35 years of breathing white spirit fumes, I used a mix of enamel and acrylics (I never knew this was possible). Eventually I will find a way of using acrylics only, but have yet to master it (or get the right paints).
(https://i.imgur.com/ViH3UGI.jpg)
Like the first batch of zombie cultists, I used acrylics on a white acrylic undercoat for the flesh ...
(https://i.imgur.com/6x1ucgT.jpg)
Then I black undercoated the rest in enamel and painted my more usual style in both enamels and (mostly) acrylics on top.
(https://i.imgur.com/iDLcyW0.jpg)
As I was painting I put some of the now obliterated Disciplinati di Morr models on the table to get the colours to match for their zombified versions. It suddenly dawned on me that loads of the living cultists were in hoods and gloves, which means you can't tell if they are alive or undead. Thus, in an instant, by scattering the undead through the body, I now had a new horde of 60 zombie cultists. Huzzah!
(https://i.imgur.com/UpFsFwg.jpg)
This makes me extra happy 'cos I thought it most likely I would never get to use the living Disciplinati di Morr army again, apart from some random one off in the far future (if I live that long).
I forgot to add an ink wash to the flesh (like I did with the first 50) before the above pictures. Acrylics are still new to me, I have been stubbornly loyal to enamels for 35 years. I could see these had not come out the same, but I couldn't work out why.
I think they look a bit better now.
(https://i.imgur.com/CoUwhk8.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/IP1IWZw.jpg)
PS: These counts a kit-bashes as there are heads from other sprues on them!!!
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22. Figures to Match!
One of my campaign players, Ant, whose player character is Jan Valckenburgh, Captain General of the VMC forces in Tilea, co-wrote the late autumn IC 2402 story entitled ‘The Once Mighty Monte Castello’ with me. I wanted pictures of the personalities involved as nearly all my campaign stories have photos. My first plan was to drive over to his place or for him to come here and do a little photo session, using his figures. But then stuff (of the RL kind) got in the way.
Then I remembered that he'd already sent some historical paintings to me at the start of the campaign (so long ago!) to illustrate the main VMC personalities, so I decided I would attempt to paint my own versions of them to use in the story. I was intrigued by the idea of making new figures or converting old ones in my collection to look (something) like these images.
Here are the results (although some are still incomplete) ...
General Jan Valckenburgh
A new figure (Perry Miniatures). On the model you can see he has cut his hair for campaigning and is wearing a surcoat so his men can spot him more easily on the field of battle but is otherwise very similar to the painting. I cut down the sword in his hand to turn it into a baton.
(https://i.imgur.com/cp9uSnz.jpg)
Luccia la Fanciulla
A new figure (Perry Miniatures again). Also in a surcoat, her hair being cut a little shorter than the original painting (the company barber has been busy). Her holy Myrmidian banner shows a common design for the goddess, being a spear and shield.
(https://i.imgur.com/h6B3dqG.jpg)
Serafina Rosa
A very old figure. I might do more work on this more - maybe even cut off the tips of her elven ears! Certainly, I should make her hair a little redder.
(https://i.imgur.com/KrTb1Rh.jpg)
The wizard Johannes Deeler
Another very old GW figure. (Sadly) I had to paint over the original, rather lovely yellow and red checked cloak with black. Unlike the previous characters he himself has shunned the barber and instead let his hair and beard grow wild! (I notice, with interest, that Ant used an image of the infamous Dr John Dee. I suddenly realised where he got the idea for his character's name!)
(https://i.imgur.com/nPFaKfJ.jpg)
While I am here, here are some other figures I put together specially for the photos.
Cpt van Luyden's Shot
Newly painted, being old Citadel models I found in a bits box. A file of northern Old Worlder handgunners acting as escort. I think I went a bit crazy with the blues, but as Buxton the Blue Cat (from the epic movie Dougal and the Blue Cat) would say: “Blue is beautiful. Blue is best. I’m blue. I’m beautiful. I’m best.” A more logical argument I have never heard.
(https://i.imgur.com/RtbA73l.jpg)
The VMC Company Colours
Converted from already painted models. The VMC (Vereenigde Marienburg Compagnie) banner has appeared in several old web-wargaming campaigns over the years.
(https://i.imgur.com/Oq5pJ4X.jpg)
I might do some more work on the faces - my old, enamel technique is a bit haphazard - I can't really see how they come out until I see the photos!!! Now I am experimenting with acrylics, maybe my faces will become more reliable? I did some other figures too but failed to photograph them. They're in the finished story piece, however, being the companies’ best ‘linguister’ (and diplomat) Pieter Schout, and some other fellers.
Here are two of the story pics, showing the VMC officers awaiting the goblin commanders who wish to parley …
(https://i.imgur.com/c3dtCev.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/bTpa0ft.jpg)
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23. Graveyard Extension
As seen in Tilea Campaign Part 15 'Media Vita in Morte Sumus'.
I wanted to expand the footprint of the GW 'Necropolis' scenery, to increase the possibilities for scenic use and to make for a bigger contribution to the field of battle. So I turned each individual tomb into its own piece with its own base, as well as the statue. Then I modelled a graveyard to go in between the walls instead of the tombs.
Adding extra steps (cut from plastic sprues and other spare bits of scenery) was quite easy ...
(https://i.imgur.com/K4wO7EB.jpg)
And
(https://i.imgur.com/47OlHnz.jpg)
Tiring from the effort (what a wimp I am!) I decided to use cut foam card to make similar extra steps for the statue (also wanting to try a different technique just to see how it worked), then added some extra gravestones from the Renedra set ...
(https://i.imgur.com/fQT06GU.jpg)
Meanwhile I modelled a graveyard from Renedra stones, with paths of cardboard and poured PVA for ground ...
(https://i.imgur.com/8Tp8M0j.jpg)
The various sticking together jobs are nearly complete in the next picture ...
(https://i.imgur.com/gbgyVqF.jpg)
Joined together the graveyard was better than I had expected ...
(https://i.imgur.com/hZtf05y.jpg)
Then I began painting. I quite liked the roses on the rails but have to admit there might be a tad too many skulls there too!
(https://i.imgur.com/YioWN5W.jpg)
Grass added and railings all painted ...
(https://i.imgur.com/x6zR6Uk.jpg)
It makes quite a large 'spread' in all …
(https://i.imgur.com/4gA9ar2.jpg)
Here the pieces can be seen used in various ways in some of the campaign story pictures ….
Through the gate
(https://i.imgur.com/sTAsoh6.jpg)
The necropolis valley of Norochia
(https://i.imgur.com/qO5Mg6r.jpg)
An interrogation …
(https://i.imgur.com/Zf9EIUQ.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/XEVCwIK.jpg)
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Woha!!!
Lots of cool stuff in this thread, but your artillery/siege engines really steal the cake for me.
Cheers,
Stroezie.
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Yeah, the engines are what I like best too. Must make some more, and now I have a skaven player in the campaign I should! Still, I am surprised you didn't think the zombie hair wasn't the best work I'd done!
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I guess the engines just appeal more to the megalomaniac in me ;)
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24. Cathayan House, simple scratchbuild
Cardboard box
(https://i.imgur.com/Kf5H9Ks.jpg)
Covered with walls and with roof supports
(https://i.imgur.com/1HyJZS4.jpg)
Planks across roof (nice bit of loft space!)
(https://i.imgur.com/V1iNyld.jpg)
String glued on (!)
(https://i.imgur.com/dnUH17l.jpg)
String trimmed and with a fascia added
(https://i.imgur.com/6vxVVO4.jpg)
Painted, with some soldiers from an occupying force guarding it
(https://i.imgur.com/8wz28Jc.jpg)
Used in a scene with its brother in an old campaign
(https://i.imgur.com/lCzp2dG.jpg)
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25. Goblin Pike Block
I reckoned that greenskins fighting in Tilea might attempt to emulate the enemies' fighting style. So with this in mind, I started adding extra lengths to their sprue-standard spear shafts. Thus they just scrape in as a 'kit-bash' regiment.
Here you can see the original (small) unit ranked up ...
(https://i.imgur.com/EGWVUE0.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/PypW8LT.jpg)
I had an old Grom figure already painted to lead them and made a musician out of an old GW boardgame figure (I forget the name of the game as I never played it!). There are some metal figures near the front, including two that are actually historical viking figures, but with gobbo heads stuck on their shoulders!
(https://i.imgur.com/W4jIjRM.jpg)
I thought Grom looked just right in the front rank ...
(https://i.imgur.com/Tsawzdb.jpg)
I added some uniformity by giving as many as possible helmets, either the fur-lined ones or the basics.
(https://i.imgur.com/QdNK48M.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/yPtAK35.jpg)
Here they are in this original, modest sized form on the field of battle …
(https://i.imgur.com/7c3fEuX.jpg)
Having fought with them a few times I realised what was missing .... more goblins! So, I increased the unit from 25 to 40. Now they looked like a major unit on the field of battle.
(https://i.imgur.com/tfOQDod.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/KPOHtr9.jpg)
Except, of course, even with campaign rules (slightly weakened pike rules) they were still goblins, and so inevitably are incredibly rubbish in battle. Who cares, though, when they look good! And, as the pikes make them look impressive, they have a habit of drawing enemy fire away from other units!
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Possibly the most embarrassing yet ...
26. Treeman, Treekin and Dryads, scratchbuilt from twigs!
Twigs = Treeman
(https://i.imgur.com/0uwHanS.jpg)
Three Treekin - two old treemen now serving as lesser creatures, and a bunch of twigs. Bet you can't guess which is twigs ...
(https://i.imgur.com/Y0ZH7tn.jpg)
Dryads. made from pure twiggery. I got the base size wrong on some, but hastily corrected it before a battle ...
(https://i.imgur.com/azYBVfU.jpg)
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Pure genius! :-*
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brilliant :-*
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27. Pike, pike and MORE pike!
I love pikemen. Erm, no, not in that way. What I mean is I love tiny models of pikemen marchin’ around the top of a table. They hurt my hands and arms if I am careless, but I just don’t care!
My campaign is set in Tilea, the Warhammer worlds’s version of Renaissance Italy, and so by definition I needed (and need) pike, pike and more pike. Earlier in this thread I showed my goblin pikes (yes, even greenskins are ‘pike-ateers’ in my campaign) but here I want to show some of my other, human, pike regiments.
These first pikemen were part of the Viadazan (‘peasant’) Crusading army early in the campaign. They are painted my usual 'cell shaded' style, and in enamels – something I have only just recently stopped doing.
These models are odd figures (to my eyes) and not to too many people's tastes. They are from Wargames Foundry's 'Casting Room Miniatures' range. Here they are unpainted …
(https://i.imgur.com/GbkF2Wn.jpg)
Foundry don't even include them in their normal catalogue, but have a separate site for them, so maybe they aren't so sure about them either! But as they are Tilean, and are equipped just right, I had to get them for the campaign. I like them exactly because they are a bit 'different'.
(https://i.imgur.com/gtnKHT9.jpg)
Because they're militia, they wear every colour under the sun. Somehow this fact seems to 'tie them together'.
(https://i.imgur.com/M89QyDO.jpg)
I made the pikes out of brush bristles – no painting needed (except for the tips I glued on the top) and when they bend no paint chips off!
(https://i.imgur.com/pGhsuhD.jpg)
Here’s a couple of shots of them ‘in action’ as they attempted to cross the bridge at Pontremola just before the fateful battle against the vampire Duke Allessandro Sforta. They were delayed a while due to the draught animals of a wagon becoming contrary …
(https://i.imgur.com/YthphLo.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/PA6gSpa.jpg)
Before I painted these my only pike regiment from (I think, but my memory might be wrong) Old Glory. I only have pics of them from story pics of parades (and I am too lazy to get them out and re-photo them). First from one of the ‘Animosity’ campaigns, as a previous iteration of the Compagnia del Sole …
(https://i.imgur.com/e4sxKMb.jpg)
Second on parade in Remas during the current campaign (after re-painting several bits to get their livery right!) ...
(https://i.imgur.com/zmeXWaa.jpg)
And third in battle during the ‘Border Princes linked the Solland Effort’ pseudo campaign, here as two regiments of the ‘Black Company’ …
(https://i.imgur.com/gldD2m2.jpg)
This next pic, due to some weird google algorithm and their appearance on a particular forum, used to come up in the top ten pics when ‘Warhammer Fantasy’ pics were googled. I was proud of that! I also like the picture, which seems posed but was from an actual game (my Middenhiemers are the enemy) …
(https://i.imgur.com/1lZJuLC.jpg)
Not yet satisfied, I wanted (and the campaign demanded) yet more pike, so I painted these guys – mainly Artizan, with a few Perry Miniatures thrown in for a smattering of extra variety. This pic was the first batch, as yet unbased …
(https://i.imgur.com/vfcOORi.jpg)
Here is the whole regiment, carrying a Verezzan flag, I think …
(https://i.imgur.com/l6y94gy.jpg)
They did, however, make the earlier guys look like they were carrying ‘baby’ pikes!
(https://i.imgur.com/qyptpz5.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ot2XchS.jpg)
Here are the Artizan/Perry on the march for Lord Lucca, off to join Lord Alessio’s allied army in the holy war against the vampires (theses are some of my favourite campaign story photos ever) …
(https://i.imgur.com/EfEOnSb.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/NMV7LpY.jpg)
Even the Sartosan pirates in my campaign like to use pikes during their land battles, and thus this (half) converted body of Wargames Foundry pirate pike (which I reckon allows me to put this whole post here in this thread) …
(https://i.imgur.com/kKG2SP3.jpg)
These were a devil to rank up and required some careful planning. They have ended up quite a disorganised bunch …
(https://i.imgur.com/Brocqwv.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/4cT4Vut.jpg)
Here’s a last shot of massed pike from a recent battle – the Battle of Norochia (or the Valley of Death) …
(https://i.imgur.com/l5yvowy.jpg)
Now, tell me you don’t like pike too!
PS: I am, right now, working on a regiment of 30 halfling pike. Pics soon, hopefully!
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28. Ogre Characters Kit-bashed from Rank and File Models
These models feature in Mangler the Merciless's campaign army - aka ‘Mangler's Band’. (He was an NPC mercenary.)
For several years I had an Ogre battalion which I used to bolster my friend's Ogre army (to the size he required for a campaign) and as Dogs of War units in several of my other armies. Finally, I decided to add what would be needed to make the battalion up to a 2000 point Ogre army. I’m too cheap to buy metal, I decided to convert Bulls into the various necessary characters (and, as seen earlier, scratchbuild the army’s machines.)
First some WIP photos. My first Butcher looked like this.
(https://i.imgur.com/mRK4Ajj.jpg)
Here are two maneaters - one with a longsword, other with a brace of handguns. I was happier with the latter cf. the former.
(https://i.imgur.com/Ssqlp18.jpg)
Here is the tyrant, who could double as a great weapon bearing Maneater instead. I had yet to add a coat with metal plates. I really want it to look like heavy armour and I could see he wasn't quite there yet.
(https://i.imgur.com/98TFicj.jpg)
Here he is with more armour - scale mail! I used plasticard pieces and hoped it would look like proper heavy armour when painted up.
(https://i.imgur.com/FVKv6sY.jpg)
My second Butcher.
(https://i.imgur.com/wneKDTp.jpg)
I intended to paint these characters in the same style as my existing basic units, so that they all look like they fit together.
Here's my basic Bulls (not fancy like my picklehaubers!):
(https://i.imgur.com/yU2emoy.jpg)
And my Ironguts:
(https://i.imgur.com/r5fkjU7.jpg)
And my favourites, big xxxxers with guns:
(https://i.imgur.com/DPewcm3.jpg)
I re-did one of the maneater's hats - the one with the big hat. It looked like it was tottering comically on his noddle, so I cut it off, scalped the guys’ head deep(!), and put the hat back on, so that it looked like it fitted, in a kind of Spaghetti Western style.
I know my cartoon style is not to all tastes, but it's my long-preferred tabletop quality method and I'm sticking to it. I also know that compared to many my painting looks pretty 'basic', but the figures 'pop' in army or regiment photos, and can be recognised easily in bat reps. (I am hoping I can continue to achieve it cleanly now I have finally switched to acrylics.)
Now the painted figures. In order, here are my Tyrant, Army Standard, Butchers (x2) and Man-Eaters...
(https://i.imgur.com/D9HcywY.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/UU5vITN.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/xo17JV8.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/TF79HnP.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ohDC0k5.jpg)
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28(B): Ogre Baggage
I probably should have added these to the previous post as they are kind of ogre characters. They are very definitely kit-bashes so they belong in this thread.
The first one I made was part of a 'Pleasant Surprise' gift exchange. I had to make something to suit the recipient forum member's collection. I checked his posts and found this image of his ogres ...
(https://i.imgur.com/w4zBbrN.jpg)
I thus realised that if I painted the ogre my way, grey-flesh in a cartoon style, it would not fit in. Thus began one of my first forays into acrylic. I only used it for the flesh, and stuck to my usual style with the rest.
I used bits of a metal scrap-launcher kit I had been given by a mate, also real chains, polyester thread, real leather for a scabbard and various other bits. The result (from various angles) ...
(https://i.imgur.com/P0SR623.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/GAB6EpF.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/4TrhHPy.jpg)
I boxed it and sent it across the sea.
I decided I very much liked this idea as a unit filler - two ogres for the price of one. So, not having no skis left, I made another version for myself using a little wheeled carriage.
WIP ...
(https://i.imgur.com/AI8sIoQ.jpg)
And here completed and used in a story picture in my campaign ...
(https://i.imgur.com/Ftc1X6j.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/aNUUE5f.jpg)
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Have I gone off on a tangent that no one is interested in?
What sort of thing would be more interesting? I'll see what I can find!
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No, not at all. I like the ogres hauling the carts. I never warmed to the latest ogre figures as much as I did to the earlier ones, with a few exceptions in the character models. What's your take on the newer figures?
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I like them. And not just because they are cheap and easily available. I like the look of them (their basic form as 'low fantasy' types) and the fact that as plastic models they are more easily converted. I have done quite a few things with them (many seen in the thread above), using the basic models to make my own characters, thus saving money and coming up with something more unique and with my own 'twist'.
I even made a hunter out of the basic plastic bulls. So -
28(C): Ogre Hunter
Here he is modelled, using various bits and two bows to make a powerful looking bolt thrower ...
(https://i.imgur.com/VIUuCZj.jpg)
It was for some forum competition, thus the next picture, which means he is 10 years old!
(https://i.imgur.com/3flK3AX.jpg)
Painted, close up.
(https://i.imgur.com/cYq0Cok.jpg)
And some angled shots.
(https://i.imgur.com/t2mJvjA.jpg)
Here he is in an early campaign story having a chat with his gnoblar scouts ... (pre-base hiding days) ...
(https://i.imgur.com/dTdk6iu.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/HlEWCqj.jpg)
So, Elk101 - d'you like him?
(I bet some other folk are shouting "Don't encourage him, Elk!" at the computer screen!)
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I do yes. I sold all mine, but I regret selling the gnoblars.
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I don't know how to sell painted figures. I just don't have the capacity to do so, to the core of my being.Thus my bloated collection!
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I don't know how to sell painted figures. I just don't have the capacity to do so, to the core of my being.Thus my bloated collection!
Amen!!
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29. Resurrected Head-Hunting Charioteer (Kit-bash)
I had two 'counts-as' corpse carts for my skelebobs, but I was not convinced by them. One was, frankly, a pathetic excuse for corpse cart ...
(https://i.imgur.com/KuyjwVm.jpg)
... as it had only the power of a rotting donkey and one lone corpse.
The other was too 'grand', clean and fancy to be a corpse cart ...
(https://i.imgur.com/dIvroVR.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/NvfBXb4.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/CFdh4qp.jpg)
... but rather was the finely decorated carriage of a long dead proud and noble warrior.
I wanted something that was more fitting, with a story that fit its role, and so I took one old chaos chariot, ancient metal skeleton, a couple of standard plastic skellie horse, LOTS of skulls and a giant's skeletal hand ...
(https://i.imgur.com/1YP09Xg.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ekA10Ev.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/drmWeOh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/IBrP8HN.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/2AVv7mt.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/jCkBMwA.jpg)
... I fitted, glued and painted until, Wa la! An ancient warrior, whose hobby is collecting the heads of his slain enemies, gets to pursue his hobby once more!
(https://i.imgur.com/BEIv8dV.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/kdH58vH.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/hXUfTFB.jpg)
This corpse carts 'magical' effects are powered by the undead souls of the head hunter's many ancient (and more recent) victims, cursed to travel with this cart wheresoever it roams.
(Don't ask what the horses did to have their heads chopped off too, but I reckon with the two bony ones assisted by the cursed souls of the the two horse's heads then that adds at least some extra horsepower.) As for the hands, he must've thought they'd come in handy!)
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Oooh well done! Looks very good! :)
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Man it is downright criminal that this thread doesn't have more comments. Amazing scratchbuilding! :)
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Excellent work on the chariot, very creepy looking.
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30. Greenskin baggage/loot wagon.
This is a kitbashed greenskin baggage wagon as featured in the Tilea Campaign Part 3 story: Interlude, The Greenskin Corsairs.
I didn’t take WIP pictures, but here you can see it from different angles. The greenskins are very old, very basic, Citadel plastics. The wagon a Tomb Kings chariot which they have ‘fixed up’ a bit (presumably looted after a battle, or found abandoned, or stolen from some other greenskins, or … who am I kidding, there must be thousands of possible ways they might have obtained it!?).
(https://i.imgur.com/62ub0IV.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/P2eEJSe.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/6Z6ltHL.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/tGVubzv.jpg)
If I was working on it now I would've made their hands clasp the poles better, but back then I wasn't really bothered by such fiddly details!
Here's the little bit of the story with this particular model in it ...
As ever, they were the last to arrive at the camp. When the mules were alive they were always behind the rest of the mob. Now the beasts had been eaten - the very marrow sucked from their bones and all agreed very nice it was too - they were just that little bit further back. Toggler knew Hafdi had to do most of the heavy work, but without Toggler’s constant encouragement they would never reach the camp each night at all. Hafdi, not the brightest of orcs (and that’s saying something considering the level of wit possessed by your average orc) was easily distracted. For an hour he had been complaining about his swollen toe.
(https://i.imgur.com/3LGZY9B.jpg)
“It’s not just ‘urtin, it’s itchin’ too!” said Hafdi.
“Well,” sighed Toggler, “pull a bit faster an’ we’ll get where we’re goin’ an’ then you can get to scratching.”
“I in’t gonna scratch at it, not when it ‘urts this much.”
Not for the first time today, Toggler rolled his eyes. “That, my big toed friend, is what you call a dilemma.”
Hafdi stopped, so suddenly that Doodo the snot nearly fell from the front of the wagon. The orc looked confused, more-so than usual.
“You talkin’ to my toe?” he asked.
Toggler had no idea where this new nonsense came from. “What’ya mean, talkin’ to yer toe?”
“You just said he was your friend, and told him about the dilella.”
“’Dilemma’” corrected the goblin. “The word’s ‘dilemma’, ain’t that right Doodo?”
“Go faster. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!” shouted the snot, as he always did.
“Come on, Toe,” said Toggler, “It ain’t much further. You can bring Hafdi along too.”
Hafdi’s pained expression vanished to be replaced by a grin. “You is talkin' to my toe!”
Hefting the pole, and once again nearly tipping Doodo the snot over (he never learned), they set off for the final stretch ...
(https://i.imgur.com/jLqG2Sl.jpg)
… passing by the camp’s outermost sewed-skin tents. There a bunch of Poglin Fangface’s goblins were gathered around a trestle table they had dragged from a woodsman’s hut nearby. Upon the table lay a murderous looking five-barreled pistol ...
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31. 'Cartoon' Zombie Pirates (of course!)
These feature in the Tilean Campaign, Part 9 story 'Assault on Viadaza'. They were done in two batches, years apart. First, I painted a regiment of ex-Empire soldiers during a campaign with 6 friends before I started any internet involvement (apart from e-mails). Modeled from Empire and Zombie sprues, I painted them, cheekily, in one player’s army colours, so that he could see he was now fighting against what used to be his own soldiers!
(https://i.imgur.com/j2OjZyM.jpg)
You can see a smattering of red and white, quartered, and the use of some Empire troop arms, legs and bodies. I must have taken the picture later though, because they are carrying a pirate flag, which links to …
In a later campaign, again before my internet battle reports etc, I wanted an army of zombie pirates in the same cartoon style as above, to allow me to mix the earlier troops in with the new ones, bulking up their numbers. This time I mixed the zombie sprues with free company sprues ....
(https://i.imgur.com/BTLjO0T.jpg)
Here are two of the captains ...
(https://i.imgur.com/M2LEsw7.jpg)
(That arrow must have stung when it went in!)
Here are some of my favourite scallywags ...
(https://i.imgur.com/RmPg3VJ.jpg)
I doubt any of their pistols are still loaded, but some of them can still manage to shoot bullets. Not well, mind, but at least they go bang ...
(https://i.imgur.com/1eeysTq.jpg)
(These handgunners are my favourite zombie pirates.)
They still thirst for rum (indeed I reckon they are probably even thristier than they were in life), so a fairly simple kitbash ...
(https://i.imgur.com/ZWUNFbS.jpg)
They have 'bloated corpses' in their army (as per the White Dwarf Luthor Harkon list) ...
(https://i.imgur.com/v5EOPQW.jpg)
(Don't ask me why I forgot to paint their faces. I just noticed now!)
Their artillery apparently doubles as a pencil sharpener ...
(https://i.imgur.com/Qf2pl0k.jpg)
And their ship once served as a cigar box ...
(https://i.imgur.com/6c6ZgRk.jpg)
Their dogs were once used for hunting cochon marron and sangliers ...
(https://i.imgur.com/Pob2cjd.jpg)
... but now help in battles.
And their insane, bestial, vampire admiral can be seen here with one of his most trusted captains ...
(https://i.imgur.com/AMFHBVi.jpg)
The admiral is also a kit-bash as his right hand has been replaced with that of an ogre, clutching a suitably curved blade.
-
Forgot about this pic from an unrelated bat rep ... all gathered together in a castle's courtyard!
(https://i.imgur.com/kGvG0pJ.jpg)
-
Cartoon zombies are obviously not very fashionable. Hmm, not sure, then, if I'll raise much interest in the following! But hey, I must continue the thread now it has been started, and so I shall.
32. Rotting Leviathans
(https://i.imgur.com/JNk5o6L.jpg)
I made these circa 1987, I think. For decades they were just painted black, but I gave them a new paint job, and added some watery effects, about 10 years ago for a new campaign.
They were fashioned from ...
Timpo 54mm knights mail armoured legs, feet cut off
Timpo 54mm shields
Plastic sails from some tiny toy ships
Red plastic caps for a 1980's style cap gun
Cotton thread
Lots of milliput
And after painting - dripped glue to make the (admittedly over-sized) water drops.
(https://i.imgur.com/NyaDPHz.jpg)
This is the description of them I wrote for the story of their raising ...
Bubbles began to bulge up from the depths, bursting to release a foul stench, and heralding the slow rise of the long dead monsters. When they came their armoured backs broke the surface first, then a mass of thrashing limbs appeared, bearing barbed claws and writhing tentacles. Galdabash looked upon them and decided that they 'would do'.
Water poured from them, for inside their exoskeleton were cavities where once their organs had been. Those spongy organs had completely rotted away, and as the water leaked out the beasts became much lighter than they had been in life - now able to scuttle across the swamp surface. Long, tusk-like claws protruded from their front-most limbs, and viciously sharp pincers flexed and snapped together beneath the bumpy bulk of their pre-historic heads. Tentacles hung on their flanks, some twitching, others flailing, and huge, many jointed tails bore curved horns and topped with hardened plates, similar to those on the top and sides of their whole bodies.
No eyes were visible, for they had not in life sported such appendages, instead they had lumps fashioned of hairy sinews, being the flaccid, rotten remains of what had once been their sense organs.
Now Galdabash turned and began the journey back to where most of his army lay unmoving and awaiting his command. The two creatures slithered along the surface of the swamp behind him.
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So many brilliant ideas on this thread - I'm in awe!
-
So, v lazy dragon - which one(s) do you like?
33. Skaven Palanquin
I wanted my skaven warlord in an old internet campaign to look impressive, but he was just a ratman. I decided he should therefore be mounted on something a bit more impressive.
so I harnessed up a rat ogre ...
(https://i.imgur.com/H6CARH0.jpg)
Got together some bits ...
(https://i.imgur.com/JJ3hYFA.jpg)
Painted up a personal guard of 30 skaven (in yellow, by far the bravest of skaven colours as it means the enemy can pick you out) ...
(https://i.imgur.com/RDgdmvy.jpg)
Built and painted the palanquin ogre ...
(https://i.imgur.com/9e04c9J.jpg)
And Warlord Scabscar ...
(https://i.imgur.com/Mt7xRTS.jpg)
And he was ready...
(https://i.imgur.com/w98GAbx.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/zTihq1z.jpg)
In his first battle, however, he joined another regiment ...
(https://i.imgur.com/mq7n0Mz.jpg)
... because his yellow guards weren't quite ready. I did finish them eventually ...
(https://i.imgur.com/8VAidJl.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/JyKP9t7.jpg)
-
Maybe I should have taken new pictures for that last one? I think I used to use the flash too much!
Anyhow ...
34. 'Arabyan' Elephant
This is a toy elephant, with balsa, real cloth, bits of my mum's old 1980's 'dress' jewelry, milliput, GW goblin plastic shields, chains and cords added.
(https://i.imgur.com/vvVdKlW.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/71ZPZct.jpg)
Here is the beast on parade as a mercenary company arrived in Marienburg in a campaign years ago ...
(https://i.imgur.com/7e58S8t.jpg)
And here are some 'in game' shots from an old battle report ...
(https://i.imgur.com/3jdEbat.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/JoW1QzH.jpg)
(I like how the servant is still offering his plate of sweetmeats to his master even as that beast attacks.)
(https://i.imgur.com/eFzOHz7.jpg)
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That's the most unique and craziest thread I've ever seen!
I always screech said, skaven make do the craziest things. You must be on clan skryre space program yes yes?
-
So many crazily good ideas in this thread. Very creative and well-executed!
-
I'm in the very early phases of another crazy Skaven scheme. Annoyed, however, that I stupidly threw a certain plastic toy away (keeping only the wheels!) years ago. I am an idiot! Now I am trying to find me a cheap plastic toy alternative, which ain't easy.
I can't even find a picture of said plastic toy, which I once took as a joke!
-
This thread continues to deliver! Love your work.
-
Thanks Rick. When I can get the right computer I will do a post about my kitbashed gorilla regiment.
-
The skaven palanquin is great. Very nicely executed.
-
kitbashed gorilla regiment.
:o
-
So many crazily good ideas in this thread. Very creative and well-executed!
couldn't agree more
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Thanks Elk101, my LordOdo and the Bloggard. Kind words.
Now, for the honourable LordOdo's satisfaction, my gorilla Slann-Guard ...
35. Armed Gorillas!
After much searching and lots of frustration, I finally got myself some gorillas from Black Tree Design (listed as Fantasy - Monsters - page 2. See https://eoeorbisuk.com/collections/fantasy/products/m114-gorilla-2?variant=4539356163&fbclid=IwAR12flUhpXUh15tdYLaZ3LhjbezmB6kBpZ4Zq8skqFGblH3sljIU9yeA8Io)
I use these converted gorilla models as Saurus warriors in a Southlands 'counts as' Lizardmen army, as my Slann's bodyguard regiment.
(https://i.imgur.com/sqjWYAk.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/C0sYXMK.jpg)
I added home-made (plastic bits and real cotton thread) stone-age weapons by drilling through their hands and stuffing them in.
(https://i.imgur.com/CFpRdkh.jpg)
Sorry the pictures are fuzzy but back then I was rubbish with my camera, which was rubbish too! I think I used to use flash all the time and that didn't work well with bare metal.
I added the shields by drilling a hole in their left arms, then using pliers I jammed a piece of plastic sprue in so that it was very firmly stuck, then I shaved it flat so that I could use the resultant polystyrene spot on the surface to apply a blob of glue and stick the shield on!
(https://i.imgur.com/459TwZR.jpg)
Please refer to my apology above re: the shoddiness of the pictures!
Here are some older shots of the regiment ...
(https://i.imgur.com/Xojs5bb.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/xOLI7dr.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/YiQ4iLA.jpg)
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Fantastic! Better run off quick when they start beating their chests!
nice bit of improvisation to get the shields to hold ... plastic on metal still gives me trouble
-
Forgot about this pic from an unrelated bat rep ... all gathered together in a castle's courtyard!
(https://i.imgur.com/kGvG0pJ.jpg)
That is totally awesome. :-*
-
Thanks syrinx0. Here are some more pics of my zombie pirates!
Bursting into Viadaza
(https://i.imgur.com/d7Y9e1S.jpg)
Watching from the jungle river bank
(https://i.imgur.com/0OqIoNf.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/UlGZnrU.jpg)
Arrayed for battle on the beach
(https://i.imgur.com/O9QeTGN.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/sX1ou0w.jpg)
And in battle against living pirates (!)
(https://i.imgur.com/LffOP0O.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/fqhkJzn.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/WwgqRSY.jpg)
(I don't reckon that mortar crew will last very long!)
-
36. Converted Historical Normans
This is an unusual entry into the list, as these are some of the earliest conversions and kit-bashes I did, way back in the early 1980s. They are pretty rough and ready, but I doubt I could do any better now tbh.
I wanted some 'fantasy' horsemen, but for various reasons (my budget and the limited ranges available to me) I couldn't just buy them. So I got some 25mm scale historical Normans and went for it with a scalpel and milliput.
The Normans, made as they were supposed to be but not painted historically, look like this (ignore the converted guy in the middle, he isn't supposed to be in the pictures yet) ...
(https://i.imgur.com/7VBkt9O.jpg)
So I took the pose throwing a spear and turned it into these varieties ...
(https://i.imgur.com/kMN0jMt.jpg)
And another pose thrusting a spear and made these versions ...
(https://i.imgur.com/8rmNuI4.jpg)
And another pose with the spear upright and did all of these ...
(https://i.imgur.com/z3j0lNG.jpg)
For the black-garbed ones amongst them, which were made mid-1980s I think, I was inspired by the marvellous opening scenes of Conan which I must have watched on VHS.
(https://i.imgur.com/trXw7MK.jpg)
They are very rarely used, as they look like children riding ponies compared to heroic/28mm figures, but they were employed in my First Edition Warhammer Battle reenactment as detailed here: http://forum.oldhammer.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=169 which included some proper 'Oldhammer' stuff like these ogres ...
(https://i.imgur.com/xTT5pCz.jpg)
And these ancient skellies about to take on the riders ...
(https://i.imgur.com/aCw0Zfa.jpg)
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37. Skeletons with Long Spears
This is a really simple kit-bash. Take a skellie, if it has a spear, use as is; if it hasn't, drill through the right hand, stuff a brush bristle through, then stick a spear tip on the top by drilling into the spear tip and shoving the shaft into it.
(https://i.imgur.com/JNtFSoq.jpg)
PS: I am very proud of that banner. It is very rare I do 'subtle' but I reckon I did it there.
(https://i.imgur.com/QOTWuXW.jpg)
Here arrayed on a reception parade to welcome the vampire duchess to Viadaza ...
(https://i.imgur.com/lys9kFv.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/o7tBwdb.jpg)
And a bonus ... a unit filler, of a kind that is the 'standard' skeleton unit filler I reckon ...
(https://i.imgur.com/w0LXhgC.jpg)
I hope you can tell the skeleton is emerging from a depression that is lower than the base's top. That's another subtlety I was surprised had worked. It's done with mirrors!
-
Wow, the skeletons look spectacular.
-
38. Basic Tilean Houses
These are 'film set' houses for the backgrounds of my campaign photos. I churn them out by necessity, and so they are very basic. Sometimes they feature in the games also, but a lot of the time they only have one or two functioning sides (thus 'film set' in style) as that is all I need in a photograph.
A lot of these houses were made from very cheap wooden boxes. Sometimes the box starts out like a house, like this ...
(https://i.imgur.com/N9kciiD.jpg)
But strip off the silly fairy-toy stuff and stick some old GW windows on and paint you get a silly wargames' house ...
(https://i.imgur.com/7yAyK9v.jpg)
Sometimes you can use several boxes ...
(https://i.imgur.com/BCULjeM.jpg)
Reposition, saw and fiddle about a bit ...
(https://i.imgur.com/ykX0tKQ.jpg)
Slap some plasticard roofs on, paint, and get something more elaborate than a box shape ...
(https://i.imgur.com/xkloSrX.jpg)
Sometimes you can get lucky and find a pottery building, in this case a candle holder, that makes for a great building once painted up ...
(https://i.imgur.com/2HOZrTR.jpg)
Sometimes you find a ceramic candle holder tower that with a bit of work also makes for a nice model ...
(https://i.imgur.com/5RDBrHh.jpg)
Here you can see the completed tower between two other towers - a Citadel one and a pre-made resin one ...
(https://i.imgur.com/Qi9U2gU.jpg)
If you find a kit-form building at a good price, then just paint it to fit in with the others ...
(https://i.imgur.com/jLidWYX.jpg)
When you want something part tower, part building, get the wooden boxes out again and add plasticard roofs ...
(https://i.imgur.com/DN8bedy.jpg)
You can make really basic houses with cardboard boxes and plasticard railway model stone walls stuck on ...
(https://i.imgur.com/sQPj5Li.jpg)
Here are three more - a larger plasticard one, another multibox one, and a very basic box-style one ...
(https://i.imgur.com/cH3UfdQ.jpg)
Sometimes I want something real fancy. In this case I took a single malt whisky box and made it into a palazzo front ...
(https://i.imgur.com/qQuWk27.jpg)
And here is the project I just finished today, which prompted me to make this post. I wanted a street, and thought why not just make the whole street side in one go. So I stuck boxes together ...
(https://i.imgur.com/XOZqAsu.jpg)
Stuck roofs on and bits of cardboard and plasticard stone here and there ...
(https://i.imgur.com/Z4blwy3.jpg)
Undercoated ...
(https://i.imgur.com/GFhdspZ.jpg)
Then using Gesso (lots of the above where gessoed as it allows you to fill gaps and add a texture) and painting and washing on some dirt ...
(https://i.imgur.com/ab71p5X.jpg)
And to get two film sets for the price of one, make the back of you set count as well ...
(https://i.imgur.com/q0HLrrn.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/GGkRs9R.jpg)
Then slap them on the table together ...
(https://i.imgur.com/HsV5sZP.jpg)
Here are some story pics featuring some of these buildings ...
(https://i.imgur.com/JrPI2Rv.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/sao55tI.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/KU8IVHq.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ZFFcSsq.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/euYo2Dx.jpg)
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Love the film set buildings! Very creative use of absolutely everything imaginable and unimaginable!
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Really great job! Very inspiring!
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Very inspirational!
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It is a lot of fun to follow this massive fantasy of yours.
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I want to post more, but it takes an exponentially longer amount of time to work out what I have and haven't posted! It just muddles me up!
-
My newest kit-bash creation - a skaven 'super-mortar' / 'uberweapon' (name tbc).
I stupidly deleted most of the photos of the earliest stages when I was trying to create space on my phone (for the later pictures ... doh!) but two survived.
Here you can see an early test to see how it might fit together ...
(https://i.imgur.com/rGVHMOj.jpg)
It was given to me already glued together, and would have been impossible to paint what with all the inaccessible innards. So I hacked it apart and began a-bashing. Here are the pieces undercoated ...
(https://i.imgur.com/j9S1gn2.jpg)
There is a standard doomsphere, a toy cannon (Playmobile?) and various other bits, including wheels.
Now here are the pics of the completed model from various angles ...
(https://i.imgur.com/f5kGEmc.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/X1473s7.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/jzkgloO.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/8W07pDr.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/VYCaSu2.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/uwydpTT.jpg)
Gibby, of this fine forum, is the Skaven player in the campaign. He and I are going to have to come up with rules for the machine.
The general idea I have so far is that this is Clan Skryre's attempt to create an army or city-destroyer. Inside the huge iron barrel is a warpstone grenado far bigger and far more potent than the bombs thrown by poisoned wind globadiers. The engine is mechanised (a converted doom wheel) to ensure it moves at speed, as it has to get within range of its target to lob the warpstone bomb, without being destroyed by enemy artillery or troops. Being a skaven engine it is unreliable, so it could blow up, centering it's table-sized blast radius on itself! If it succeeds in lobbing it's bomb, then a city could die! No damage to the buildings, but all life (give or take a few very lucky survivors) perishes. The globe is fused to blow in the air above the city. I might make that fact one of things that could go wrong, as if it hits the ground it will have a much, much lesser effect.
I reckon we can have a brilliant scenario game in which the skaven player has to get this intact from one side of the board to the other. If he does so, then we roll for it firing. If that goes wrong, everything on the table could die!
I have ordered the sprues for 10 plague monks which I am gonna convert (masking them up) to be this engine's attendants.
-
Nice Skaven War Engine!
-
Aha! So this-this was the Clan Skryre wonder weapon, very powerful, yes-yes?
-
Not yet based, but I have finished the war-machine's 6 'attendants'. Kit-bashed using bit of plastic and cord, to make filter tanks, and masks (so they don't breath in too much warpstone vapour). This is the first time (in 40 years) I've worked solely in acrylics rather than enamels or a combination of both, and one of the very few times I used a white undercoat for the majority of the model. I like the guy with the shovel best - such a practical tool for a war machine attendant.
(https://i.imgur.com/GJg2dbO.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/P9YvbUe.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/wJMfzIV.jpg)
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Been working on turning the carroccio captured by the undead into a BIG corpse cart, and now almost there. Some fiddly little bits to do and .... the one that's bugging me, I need (a) a design for the Church of Nagash's standard, and (b) the ability/luck to be able to paint it!
(https://i.imgur.com/NutT80z.jpg)
-
;D
Love all of it! But of course the skryre uber weapons takes the cake ^.^
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What a fantastic idea! I always think there aren't enough four-wheeled (or two-wheeled) devices in wargames and capturing the carroccio was a great narrative device... and now a great literal (undead) device! You could have just used the same model but nope, it's been corrupted by the undead. Just wonderful!
(Yes, I'm transparently on the side of the deadites, sorry lol )
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Thanks.
Making a pile of corpses to fill the wagon was more time consuming than I thought! You need a lot!
I will post WIP sequence pics and better pics when it is finally completed. Can't wait to see it trundling along between 110 zombified cultists!
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At long last, it is complete!
(https://i.imgur.com/YNWPARA.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/dKlcsZa.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/PABPaUE.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/E4VyKql.jpg)
Some WIP shots ...
(https://i.imgur.com/XnSrrJm.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ygYB9yS.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Og2U3id.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/nhXlgNk.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/aSZBqj7.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/qRxoLrm.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/v6STPx3.jpg)
Here it is before it was captured by the undead, when the Morrite Cultists were a-flagellating in preparation for the battle they lost!
(https://i.imgur.com/RR7KiiT.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ZLyYL92.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Raz5CLr.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/xxZUI9F.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/HSXbIIU.jpg)
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Nice work! Would you have a quick link to the battle wherein it was captured?
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more fantastic stuff!
and those last few 'diorama' pics are superb
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Thanks WuZhuiQiu and Bloggard.
The story of the battle and the prequel which contains those pictures can be found on my website at ...
https://bigsmallworlds.com/2017/10/01/tilea-campaign-part-13/
The second story, called 'The Battle for Ebino, Prequel' has the pictures used above.
-
really nice looking website / presentation.
one thing, imo, - with ragged alignment paragraphs, no need for hyphenation?
-
It must be a browser issue cos I don't see anything odd nor really understand what you are seeing?
-
ah yes, of course it could be.
when I view the page, the text paragraphs are hyphenated, which is bit disjointing and unnecessary with ragged alignment imo, but if you've not control over that it's moot I guess.
-
Thanks WuZhuiQiu and Bloggard.
The story of the battle and the prequel which contains those pictures can be found on my website at ...
https://bigsmallworlds.com/2017/10/01/tilea-campaign-part-13/
The second story, called 'The Battle for Ebino, Prequel' has the pictures used above.
Thank you!
-
I was reading some more entries in your campaign blog, and would be curious to learn how you had modelled "Granite Breaker"? Aha! It was described in this very thread!
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=120442.30
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Oh, I finally got to my pc to give you a link but you had beaten me to it! As you can see it wasn't a modelling-conversion of any kind, but simply a paint job!
-
I feel bad as pandemic isolation induced mind fuzziness meant I put a post about a new project up as a separate post when it should have been added to this thread, which I had forgotten about (see the bit about 'mind fuzziness' re: why) so ... I will just link that post here rather than paste and repeat it all again. For completeness sake. Next time I will try to stick to this thread!
Halfling Pike regiment: http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=125951.0
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And to make up for this rude interruption (if into my own thread) I will put up some more old projects for your perusal.
Being half Yorkshire, half Scottish, I am somewhat careful with money. I want to get the most out of every kit. So I bought one Skaven war machine (which could be made into either a plague claw catapult or a warplightning cannon) and I wangled both machines out of that one kit, with the judicious use of lolly sticks and spare wheels in my bits box and cheap chain, etc.
The catapult, it's warpstone counterweight beijg a crucial part of the cannon, had to use a little pebble I picked up from a coastal walk instead!
(https://i.imgur.com/dgLsPcR.jpg)
It was fun getting the chains to hold the pebble. I built this in a different orientation to the suggested model (official https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Pestilens-Plague-Claw-Catapult). Notice my addition of handy platforms at the side? I don'l like to put my models to too much trouble! The engine is far more easily attended with these platforms in place. Also I have added some sort of extra winching wheel mechanism. Hopefully that also helps save the little rats' arms?
The warplightning cannon got off to a false start, when I thought I could just wood stain the balsa and lolly sticks ...
(https://i.imgur.com/OGcF4Uf.jpg)
It did not look at all right, so I painted it to match the rest of my stuff a bit better ...
(https://i.imgur.com/OtTSdNF.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/CU6QhjT.jpg)
The official model (https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Skaven-Warp-Lightning-Cannon-2015) looks quite a bit different. I have reversed the barrel (I don't know why, now) and added what I consider to be vital copper boiler type things underneath. Vital.
Before I repainted it, I remembered I had scratchbuilt a warp lightning cannon a LONG time ago, so I dug that first one out of it's box ...
(https://i.imgur.com/ELMfkSI.jpg)
Yes, that is a toothpaste top, and yes, that does seem to be some sort of gas mask wearing womble/Clanger crewing the machine.
(https://i.imgur.com/yVCn2Oz.jpg)
Just before I repainted it, I lined up my three warplightning cannons to see what they would look like side by side ..
(https://i.imgur.com/81bG9iO.jpg)
Apparently scale creep has occurred in my personal life too!
I now have another one (see earlier this thread - http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=120442.msg1510330#msg1510330) which means Gibby can currently field three proper ones in his campaign army.
The little one, however, I am fond of. I am toying with the idea of making house-rules for a smaller, weaker, less effective version, so that Gibby's forces might include a baby cannon too!
-
Should have kept this up for my more current projects. But, here is my latest WIP ... Skaven engine guard regiment. They have to have protective gear as the machne they guard leaks deadly gases!
I have been working on these recently as a break from working on the photos, stories, reports. A hobby break from hobby breaks!!!!
Here are the two varieties of air tanks - original and the 'improved' version.
(https://i.imgur.com/9YMwCIs.jpg)
Here are the four mask types.
1. Original (with the lovely thread I ran out of for the feeder tube).
(https://i.imgur.com/mvNYTWZ.jpg)
2. Pointy version (as I ran out of original shapes, taken from ogre sprues!)
(https://i.imgur.com/uVsFay6.jpg)
3. Globe-ended, using the musician's beater end!
(https://i.imgur.com/q6gObc8.jpg)
4. Mark 4. These actually have real screws inside to counter with the non-stick plastic band.
(https://i.imgur.com/D2rQuVp.jpg)
The whole regiment, ready for priming, from front and rear. Ranking them up is hell!
(https://i.imgur.com/rcEUR2a.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/xb2MFFI.jpg)
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I just found this topic, and its amazing! Those machines are incredible!
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Nice stuff
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Here they are almost fully completed. Just a few bits need the anti-shine varnish, and I will put some flock on the bases.
(https://i.imgur.com/ZxOrBFB.jpg)
They were truly nightmarish to rank up. I double based 16 of them (so, 8 pairs). Then I had to cut individuals off the bases to angle them very carefully behind a figure that they could just fit behind!
Here are a couple of the air tanks …
(https://i.imgur.com/crU1rUr.jpg)
You can see the eye lenses here …
(https://i.imgur.com/m7V4qX3.jpg)
Here is the command (musician x2 – I think I got muddled up) and a standard. The standard bearer does not have a very long arm. That’s an ornamental brass had on the top!
(https://i.imgur.com/ighrYCP.jpg)
They are Clan Skryre so I researched to correct rune!
Two close up …
(https://i.imgur.com/4WuTEOW.jpg)
These last few show how well the dip worked. Well, I think so. This is a major departure from my normal black lining technique, but I love the way it has come out …
(https://i.imgur.com/tMfFpFV.jpg)
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They look good! How are you going to represent the gas masks' in-game effects? Will they grant a saving throw against the effects of noxious gases?
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Yes!
I am in secret negotiations with Gibby of this very forum regarding the rules for the machine (the deadly danger of mere proximity to it and how it fires, etc). I am working with various rules in the Skaven book, so that there is some sort of precedent for each component of the new rules.
The other players will get a say in the rules, as I like to gain a consensus ... but they won't get that say until (and if) it is just about to be used. If they knew the details of its operation now that would give their player characters a clairvoyan/precognitive knowledge they cannot possibly have! It would meam they plan strategically for it when in the gameworld they know very little about it.
Campaigns like this can take the GM and the players to some funny places, with such tortuous factors to be considered!
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Superb unit. I really like the imagination you have put into building this warband; both for coming up with the new inventions and then recreating them on your miniatures. Well done!
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The guard unit came out perfect! They really look the part!
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Yes!
I am in secret negotiations with Gibby of this very forum regarding the rules for the machine (the deadly danger of mere proximity to it and how it fires, etc). I am working with various rules in the Skaven book, so that there is some sort of precedent for each component of the new rules.
The other players will get a say in the rules, as I like to gain a consensus ... but they won't get that say until (and if) it is just about to be used. If they knew the details of its operation now that would give their player characters a clairvoyan/precognitive knowledge they cannot possibly have! It would meam they plan strategically for it when in the gameworld they know very little about it.
Campaigns like this can take the GM and the players to some funny places, with such tortuous factors to be considered!
I look forward to reading about it in a future account of a battle!
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This counts as a kitbash as I used old and new horses mixed to get more out of my recent purchases. I had 5 riders left over from a box I built hexwraiths out of, and so out them on the old horses ...
I have been forgetting to post in my threads!
Here are some skellie riders which I think came out ok.
The unit
(https://i.imgur.com/mbPk9vI.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/nSRDgwD.jpg)
One up close, to show the weird use of enamel metallic and non metallic paints mixed ...
(https://i.imgur.com/xDy0KqE.jpg)
Another close up ...
(https://i.imgur.com/ScpxzVO.jpg)
Strung out
(https://i.imgur.com/4WQbVYY.jpg)
I used 5 of the newer horses and 5 of the older models ...
(https://i.imgur.com/KkNT0YU.jpg)
In an actual game with the vampire duchess ...
(https://i.imgur.com/a1Ma4u0.jpg)
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I really like those.
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Nice choice of colours 👍🏼
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Very nice, that reminds me I have some skellies to do myself.
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Very nice!
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The old and the new go well together. Nice work.
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They make a lovely cohesive unit.
Gotta love the Vampire too!
:-*
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Just completed 12 more swamp zombies. Having de-rooted & de-branched the new GW ones, making 23 from the sprue with some other bits kitbashed in, I bought 12 of the Black Tree Designs (Zombies of the Sweltering Swamps) to mix it up a bit more. I was hoping they would scale well and ... I think ... they did.
I have now modeled them, lots of fiddly bits cut off the plastic GW ones and most of the polearm shafts replaced on the metal BTD ones as the originals were quite weak and bendy.
Here are two pairs, to show how (I think) they fit well together ...
(https://i.imgur.com/bacwoZY.jpg)
Some of the metal polearms looked like they might survive handling ...
(https://i.imgur.com/NOsR3d6.jpg)
Whereas quite a few needed cutting off, the hands drilled and brass rods inserted. Just stick the original blades on the end and wa la!
(https://i.imgur.com/Wk2aXqt.jpg)
I love the weird long polearms, some sort of swamp beast fighting gear?
I reckon that when painted (and rebased) they will mix and match quite convincingly ...
(https://i.imgur.com/QLqaa7E.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/LV1u6Nq.jpg)
Just got 35 to spray, paint, dip, varnish and repaint (edit) re-base. I think the acrylic paints and dip technique I have been trying recently (after 35+ years of enamel black lining) should work well on these.
(https://i.imgur.com/xeQIMZf.jpg)
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Nice work! Are you switching to round bases?
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Oops. 'repaint' was me attempting to type 're-base'. All will be on squares. This is a WFB 8th ed campaign.
Once they are painted, I then have fun figuring out which ones I want to put on individual or bases and which ones to put on two, three or 4 figure multi bases. I cannot decide until I see how good or bad the paint jobs are!!!
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nice job. every time I ordered from BTD I was surprised by the quality of the miniatures, which on their website often look pretty odd and misshapen. haven't bought the swamp zombies though, looking forward to see yours painted for a judgement on the minis...
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Oops! I never put the pics of the finished figures here! I will rectify asap.
Meanwhile, I have recommenced my foray into modelling halflings. I already made a large regiment of halfling pike (see above somewhere) using Wargames Atlantic models. I am now adding missile troops (bows, crossbows, handguns(!) and some bolt throwers).
Here are the three crewmen I just bashed for the first of two Wizkids' Bolt throwers (two engines in a blister for £5, a bargain).
(https://i.imgur.com/oH2OKk3.jpg)
The bolt heads don't all look the same, but why should they? Different heads for different targets, possibly? Or just the lack of standardisation inherent in a pre-industrial society?
The engine's commander. I love this helmet on the sprue.
(https://i.imgur.com/v0lxDxw.jpg)
The other two crewmen have old, plastic, GW Bretonnian heads, for a bit of variety from the pike, archers and crossbow who all have the same kind of helmet on an 'official' head'.
(https://i.imgur.com/5qo2SkD.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Xt9UpvJ.jpg)
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I have now found some later pictures of the zombies. I cannot work out why I forgot to put them here!
First I did a 'paint test run' for my new swamp zombies regiment. Having ditched enamels after 35 years, I went with acrylics and army painter dip (wash), then anti-shine. I had been experimenting for a year and I think I'm getting the technique about right now.
(https://i.imgur.com/u8aehg9.jpg)
The first model is a Black Tree Designs metal figure, which I am glad to see fits in with the plastics well as I bought all of their swamp zombies. I replaced his thin, bendy, lead spear shaft with a brass rod. The middle one is one of the very new GW plastic zombies, but with all the roots/branches weirdness chopped off. The third has a new GW top half, and a Mantic skeleton's legs! This sort of kit-bash mish-mash is how I made 23 zombies from the sprues instead of the official 20!
I was convinced by this very simple technique - spray primer/base coat, block painting with acrylic base paints, washed with an Army Builder dip. I love them – so different to my old style.
Here they are done, apart from basing ....
The command are all Black Tree Designs swamp zombies. The standard came out much darker than I wanted but I will know next time …
(https://i.imgur.com/yc0ZLSV.jpg)
Part of the front two ranks, Black Tree Design …
(https://i.imgur.com/5SSFFS0.jpg)
Another part of the front two ranks, Black Tree Design with lovely long spears (again, I replaced the bendy originals with brass rods) …
(https://i.imgur.com/haCW2pP.jpg)
This is the rear of one of the guys. Those skulls, that chain – they are far more realistic than I ever achieved in 35 years of enamel ‘cartoon’ style. And I bloomin’ love it …
(https://i.imgur.com/rTRVPat.jpg)
3rd rank, GW, de-rooted ...
(https://i.imgur.com/2mLoe5Z.jpg)
4th rank, GW, de-rooted …
(https://i.imgur.com/S8fe466.jpg)
4th rank - the one ‘space filler’ I needed to make 35 into a 6x6 footprint! Stake still needed more work, obviously …
(https://i.imgur.com/CnvQMGQ.jpg)
5th and 6th ranks, all GW, de-rooted!
(https://i.imgur.com/88Ge88a.jpg)
I sorted the space filler - here she is based.
(https://i.imgur.com/eJPZAAY.jpg)
I have an idea for a story about her 'situation' that reveals something important about the marshlands! It will be part of the marsh-battle report prequel.
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Two more bashed Wargames Atlantic halflings ...
The standard bearer has an old GW Bretonnian bit as the standard on a pike arm. The 'musician' is actually an ale-barrel carrier, which I reckon inspires the troops as well as any drum beater or horn blower! Again (I think), a GW Bretonnian piece.
(https://i.imgur.com/G1HS09C.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/w28QWbX.jpg)
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Great idea on the ale carrier.
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Some great kit bashing and painting there. Looking forward to seeing them all in action.
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Thanks Grumpy and Little O'.
Churning on with the halflings - Here's a company of kit-bashed halfling crossbowmen. They are Wargames Atlantic figures with GW and Perry crossbows and some Perry and GW heads!
(https://i.imgur.com/Wx9ifmN.jpg)
The musician uses one hand to blow the horn, while he holds a crossbow in the other just in case things get 'sticky' and he needs to join in the company's efforts.
(https://i.imgur.com/95QVQYP.jpg)
The commander
(https://i.imgur.com/K3GOrh3.jpg)
And some of the others closer up.
(https://i.imgur.com/NTgKqmd.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/bKwlFtv.jpg)
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I have completed a new Sartosan Pirate regiment for the campaign army. As with the rest of the army, I used an old fan-made army list which I can no longer find on the web, and modified a little to suit the figures I had. I got the idea for this new crew by being talked into buying the new ogre pirate model now available in Warhammer stores. He’s a lovely figure. I forgot to model and paint his parrot, but I will do so before he is used on the tabletop. I put him on a square base as our campaign began many years ago during 8th ed, and is still using 8th ed rules.
Here's the whole regiment …
(https://i.imgur.com/0LSC6vw.jpg)
And here is Kroll in his front-rank position …
(https://i.imgur.com/XIcKucT.jpg)
Kroll!
(https://i.imgur.com/0MbEi3g.jpg)
OGRE CAPTAIN KROLL
Kroll M4 WS5 S4 S5 T5 W4 I3 A4 Ld8
Giant Parrot M- WS2 BS- S2 T- W- I2 A1 Ld-
Sea Legs; Fear; Impact Hits: Immune to Psychology; Brace of handguns; Lucky Smasher (magic weapon):All Attacks at Multiple Wounds (D3). Can re-roll 1’s to hit.
Giant Parrot: The parrot cannot fly away (it has been clipped) but it can bite! In 1st round of combat, enemies in base contact with crusher are at -1 to hit.
…
His crew are Wargames Foundry models (all but one) and are definitely fantasy pirates due to the ear-rings and head/waist scarves which were only really ever in illustrations of pirates not actually worn by early 18th century pirates. (Blame the late 19th century, American illustrator Howard Pyle for the look, based on Spanish folk costume of the time - done so that readers would know who was meant to be who in illustrations!)
I did not have quite enough models for a full regiment of axemen, so I used a spare older Games Workshop/Citadel plastic Free Company figure, and some orcs based on 20mm bases, and two big orcs based on 40x40mm bases (unit filler FTW) thus gaining the necessary footprint of 26 crew.
26 PIRATE CREW: KROLL’s Crew
Crewman M4 WS3 BS3 S3 T3 W1 I3 A1 Ld7
Scallywag M4 WS3 BS3 S3 T3 W1 I3 A2 Ld7
Scallywag. Sea Shanty Singer. Standard Bearer. Boarding Axes = Great Weapons
These illustrations show just the new figures, and the old GW plastic in the rear rank …
First rank
(https://i.imgur.com/PzpXUfr.jpg)
Second rank
(https://i.imgur.com/SHZxt2u.jpg)
Third rank
(https://i.imgur.com/fvwNXZo.jpg)
Fourth rank
(https://i.imgur.com/fgQ8g46.jpg)
Fifth rank (with a GW model, painted back when I still used enamels)
(https://i.imgur.com/52UWx3B.jpg)
And the unit fillers …
(https://i.imgur.com/EzTIDlu.jpg)
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Looking good! 👍
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Here's a regiment of renown regiment I came up with for a competition a few months ago. It has been considerably delayed so I gained permission to post about it if I wanted to. And I do.
Falco Galante’s Balestrieri (Halfling Rangers) 14 pts per model
(https://i.imgur.com/IjhpZjO.jpg)
These mercenary, halfling rangers hail from the hill villages around the Tilean city of Verezzo. Halflings are commonly gifted archers, these fellows exceptionally so, but unlike many of their counterparts they have adopted crossbows to add an extra punch to their missiles. Their weapons are the lighter kind that mounted crossbowmen carry, as heavier ones are too much of a burden on campaign. Although such lighter crossbows can be hand-spanned by foot men, most of Galante’s halflings use windlasses or cranequins. Tactically, they usually move ahead of the army, or more often on its flanks, seeking suitable spots from which to shoot at the foe, either concealed by greenery or protected by walls or fences. Their red pelican standard is used on the march and in parade, but is trailed when sneaking up on the foe, only being raised after the company has revealed its presence, either by emerging in sight of the foe or by shooting.
M4 WS2 BS5 S2 T2 W1 I5 A1 Ld8 Sv6 Unit size: 8-16
Hand weapons; Light crossbows (Range 20", Strength 4); Light armour.
Musician (+ 5 pts); Standard (+10 pts); Champion (+10 pts)
Special rules: Skirmishers; Scouts.
(https://i.imgur.com/QjCuIWm.jpg)
Falco Galante (Halfling Captain) 60 pts
Falco has mastered of the art of ambush and is believed to be as good with a bow as the infamous outlaw Roberto Capuccio (the Pettirosso). Unlike the rest of his company, he carries a bow, rumoured to have poison-tipped arrows. In battle, his shots signal to his company where they should aim, so whenever an arrow fells an enemy, a hail of quarrels follows a moment later.
M4 WS3 BS6 S3 T3 W2 I6 A3 Ld8
Hand weapon, light armor, bow.
Special rules: Poisoned Attacks; Scout; Ambush (Falco and his company may use the Ambushers special rule); No movement penalties in woods.
(https://i.imgur.com/zlT6EVm.jpg)
Note: These rules were modified from the Empire Forum’s old Treachery and Greed & Empire of Wolves campaign army lists.
……………………….
Kit-bashing
These are kit-bashed mainly from the Wargames Atlantic sprues, with Games Workshop and Perry crossbows as well as some Perry and Games Workshop heads!
(https://i.imgur.com/Wx9ifmN.jpg)
Here is the musician. One hand is needed to blow the horn, while the other hand holds a crossbow in case things get 'sticky' and he needs to join in the company's efforts.
(https://i.imgur.com/95QVQYP.jpg)
Unit Champion
A Perry head I believe.
(https://i.imgur.com/K3GOrh3.jpg)
Unit Standard
I used a weird old Bretonnian bit I thought would make a suitably halfling sort of standard ...
(https://i.imgur.com/w28QWbX.jpg)
Rank and File
(https://i.imgur.com/NTgKqmd.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/bKwlFtv.jpg)
Painting
I want to replicate the ‘cartoon’ look of the other of the 35 years’ worth of enamel figures I own, yet also try to improve my often shockingly bad faces and hands. So, I sprayed a primer, painted the flesh, washed the flesh areas with Agrax Earth Shade, then undercoated the rest with black.
(https://i.imgur.com/5gggJm9.jpg)
From here I blocked on base paints (as the closest acrylic medium to enamels). The end result fits better with my earlier figures!
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More (Wargames Atlantic) halflings for the army of Verezzo
First up some archers ...
(https://i.imgur.com/Re29YQd.jpg)
A dude knocking an arrow ...
(https://i.imgur.com/1GrNiPJ.jpg)
Who needs a musician when you have beer?
(https://i.imgur.com/x4CA5YY.jpg)
Two kit-bashed guys to serve in the baggage trayne ...
(https://i.imgur.com/abT0S6V.jpg)
Bolt thrower battery (using Whizzkids' models)
(https://i.imgur.com/ozf1aIg.jpg)
Bolt one
(https://i.imgur.com/4hoy7l0.jpg)
Bolt two
(https://i.imgur.com/kJwX7j1.jpg)
Bolt commander ...
(https://i.imgur.com/GI16C4t.jpg)
Battery Captain ...
(https://i.imgur.com/YdQmx7V.jpg)
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Nice, I do like those halfling models
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Two wizards nearly done. Gonna do a test game with the halflings, including these two, this weekend. I need to learn how to command them in the field. They are an NPC realm, but it is my duty as a GM to ensure they are not a complete 'push over'!
(https://i.imgur.com/VfuBixj.jpg)